Police unhappy with 20-year-old suspect's bail

The Tema Circuit Court today granted bail to a principal suspect in a robbery case to the chagrin of the police.

Twenty-year-old Pearl Akaba was arrested for allegedly contracting three men, including her boyfriend, to rob her father of sales from his petrol filling station at Dodowa.

She was apprehended with the three other suspects on July 29, this year, along the Dodowa-Afienya road after they had managed to steal GH¢6,730, being the sales made from petroleum products.

The three other suspects are Bright Attipoe, 25,  Pearl's boyfriend, Michael Nana Dadzie, 26 and Seth Mensah, 26, the attendant at the filling station.

The suspects after they had succeeded in taking the money attempted to flee in a black Hyundai Accent car with registration number GN 3061-11.

A police dispatch team that had a tip-off, alerted the Afienya Police command and they barricaded the road with the support of taxi drivers, resulting in the arrest of the fleeing gang.

However, when the police sent the suspects to court to be remanded, the presiding judge, granted bail to Pearl Akaba and remanded the three male suspects.

Reacting to the court's decision, the Dodowa District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police, Mr Kwesi Ofori, expressed disappointment with the judge's decision.

According to him, Akaba was the principal suspect in the case and wondered how she was granted bail, especially when the case was a non-bailable offence.

He said the police would use the requisite machinery to protest the decision of the court to the Chief Justice.

Earlier narrating the circumstances of the robbery to the Daily Graphic yesterday, Mr Ofori said the suspects and the station attendant staged the robbery.

He said on July 29, this year, Mensah informed workers at the station that he was going to Madina in Accra, to deposit the sales the station made the previous day.

According to Mr Ofori, Mensah had already told Pearl where he would be standing to pick a car.

He said as soon as Mensah stopped a taxi in front of the filling station, Dadzie, who is well-built, came out of the car, walked over to Mensah and gave him a hefty slap.

Mr Ofori said Mensah feigned to have fallen and also pretended to be unconscious.

He said the action was staged so well that it convinced some of the workers and eyewitnesses that the attack was real.

According to Mr Ofori, Dadzie after taking the bag containing the money rushed back into the car and fled. All along, Pearl and Attipoe were crouching at the back seat of the car, to prevent the workers from spotting them.

Mr Ofori said the police, who had a tip off, rushed to the filling station and in an attempt to deceive the police, Mensah, who had then 'regained consciousness,' misdirected them on where his accomplices were heading.

However, when the police took off in the direction given by Mensah, a woman who was selling by the road, stopped them and told them the direction the suspects took.

Mr Ofori said the Afienya Police arrested the three when they reached the barrier.