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23.02.2006 Crime & Punishment

Suspected member of mobile phone snatching syndicate arrested

23.02.2006 LISTEN
By GNA

Mamponteng (Ash), Feb. 23, GNA - A 20-year-old farmer who is suspected to be a member of a mobile phone snatching syndicate operating between Brofoyedru and Bosore in the Kwabre district of Ashanti has been arrested by the Mamponteng police. Issah Dauda was arrested when he attempted to snatch the mobile phone of one Yaa Fosuwaah who was on her way to church on Wednesday. Briefing the Ghana News Agency on the incident at Mamponteng, Inspector Ben Apureyuri, officer in-charge of the Mamponteng police station, said the mode of operation of the syndicate is that its members laid ambush at dawn and night to swooped on their victims to collect their phones and other valuable items.

Inspector Apureyuri said the syndicate stepped up their activities last year when they succeeded in snatching several mobile phones belonging to members of the God's Way International Church at Bosore. He said whiles Fosuwaah was on her way to the church on Wednesday, Dauda, who was wielding a knife and trailing her, ordered her to stop at a junction between Brofoyedru and Bosore. He said sensing danger, the former shouted for help, which attracted people in the neighbourhood.

The station officer said Dauda following this development ran and hid in the bush but people who had rushed to the scene combed the area, apprehended and handed him over to the police. Meanwhile, when he was arraigned before the Mamponteng magistrate court for attempting to commit crime, Dauda was granted bail in the sum of two million cedis with a surety to justify. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and will re-appear on March 24. In a related development, the police had retrieved the knife, which Dauda had wanted to commit the crime with.

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