Tema MCE's Special Aide Grabbed After Stealing Excavator

Investigations have led some police personnel and the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Felix Mensah Nii Annan-La, to a hideout at Kokompe, Kpone, to convey a pay-loader which was stolen and sold to a scrap dealer by four Tema Assembly staff.

Alexander Allotey, Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) Mechanical Engineer, Lawrence Agyekum, Assembly Member for Ottawa Electoral Area and Special Aide to the Tema MCE, Stanley Arthur, and one Figo, a security aide to the MCE, allegedly stole and sold the earth-moving machine to a scrap dealer for GH¢12,000 at Community Five.

The accused persons, after being thrown into the cooler, after the MCE had lodged a formal complaint to the Tema Community One Police on November 7, were granted police enquiry bail on November 9.

And the next day, Saturday November 10, a team of police personnel, the Tema MCE and some staff of the Assembly dashed to a 'Jericho' walled yard at Kpone Kokompe, where they found the pay-loader in bad condition.

Glad that the vehicle was found, Felix Nii Annan-La said: “I didn't care my personal aides were allegedly involved in the criminal act. I reported the matter to the police and I want to leave them to do their job.”

The machine was sold two years ago, but after an anonymous person whispered the act to the MCE, he directed the Public Relations and Compliant Committee (PRCC) of the Assembly to initiate investigations into the matter, who reported back to the MCE that the machine had been stolen.

Felix Annan-La, on November 7, 2018, lodged an official compliant to the Tema Regional Police Command, which also instructed the Community One District Police Headquarters, to investigate the matter.

The police nabbed and threw the four into cells, but some assembly members at the TMA and Tema West Assembly expressed disgust at the MCE's action, which they described as irrational and an attempt to disgrace “the honourable members of the TMA.”

Some members of the Tema West Assembly said that the Tema MCE, as the head of MESEC, could not use the security agencies to conduct an investigation to establish a prima facie case against Lawrence Agyekum, one of the accused persons and also Assembly Member for Ottawa Electoral Area, before his arrest.

They claimed the Tema MCE did not know his role as the head of MESEC, because he had not taken time to read Act 963 of the Local Government Act.