Judge threatens arrest of investigator
Gilbert Boyefio
03/10/2008
Idrissu Mahamadu, the trial judges in the June 23 Madina Ecobank robbery and the killing of a police guard case, has threatened to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the investigator handling the case.
The judge's decision was informed by the inability of the investigator to bring the accused persons to court.
According to the judge, he was at a loss as to why the accused persons should be held at the Police Headquarters for questioning after officials of Ecobank had failed to identify them at two separate identification parades conducted by the police at the Madina Ecobank office and also at the Police Headquarters. "It is very capricious for the investigator to be holding the accused persons at the Police Headquarters for questioning and not bringing them to court,” he fumed.
The case has therefore been adjourned to October 8.
The three accused persons, Daniel Pedro (aka Oghenervena), Festus Suleman and Israel Otubu, are facing two counts of conspiracy and robbery. They first appeared before the court on August 26. Their plea has not been taken and they have since been remanded in police custody.
Mr Blagodzi, counsel for the accused persons, has continuously insisted that his clients were innocent students who had been arrested by the police. He held that if indeed his clients had been behind the robbery, they would have left the country before their arrest since the amount involved could have taken them out of the country.
The facts of the case are that at about 9. a.m., on June 23, 2008, the Ecobank bullion van, with registration number GT 8371 G, being driven by Emmanuel Abedu under the escort of General Sergeant William Kweku Quansah of the Adabraka Police Station, was scheduled to convey GH¢60,040.00 to the Madina outlet of the bank located at Madina Zongo Junction.On arrival at the outlet, five armed men who had positioned themselves at different locations within the bank’s premises attacked the policeman and another colleague, General Constable David Agbosu, who was on guard duty at the bank simultaneously.
The attackers managed to collect an AK 47 assault riffle with 10 rounds of ammunition from Constable Agbosu and during a scuffle between Sgt Quansah and one of the alleged robbers, a member of the gang in a waiting unregistered Toyota Matrix saloon car approached Sgt Quansah from his blind side and shot him at the left side.Sgt Quansah later died at the University of Ghana Hospital at Legon while the robbers bolted with the money amidst sporadic firing. Two persons, namely, Richard Adu and Christian Asante Djani, who were then in a commercial vehicle with registration number GW 1116 X, were hit by stray bullets.
The prosecution said immediately after the incident, information was received that some Nigerian nationals living in a house at Nungua arrived in the house with large sums of money and packed their belongings and left the house. The house was located and the three suspects were arrested and when interrogated they denied any involvement in the robbery.
Pedro denied owning a vehicle but when he realised that the police had information regarding a vehicle owned by him, Pedro was said to have confessed that his only vehicle was taken to Nigeria; the police therefore felt that he was involved in the robbery and needed to be kept for further investigations.
03/10/2008
Idrissu Mahamadu, the trial judges in the June 23 Madina Ecobank robbery and the killing of a police guard case, has threatened to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the investigator handling the case.
The judge's decision was informed by the inability of the investigator to bring the accused persons to court.
According to the judge, he was at a loss as to why the accused persons should be held at the Police Headquarters for questioning after officials of Ecobank had failed to identify them at two separate identification parades conducted by the police at the Madina Ecobank office and also at the Police Headquarters. "It is very capricious for the investigator to be holding the accused persons at the Police Headquarters for questioning and not bringing them to court,” he fumed.
The case has therefore been adjourned to October 8.
The three accused persons, Daniel Pedro (aka Oghenervena), Festus Suleman and Israel Otubu, are facing two counts of conspiracy and robbery. They first appeared before the court on August 26. Their plea has not been taken and they have since been remanded in police custody.
Mr Blagodzi, counsel for the accused persons, has continuously insisted that his clients were innocent students who had been arrested by the police. He held that if indeed his clients had been behind the robbery, they would have left the country before their arrest since the amount involved could have taken them out of the country.
The facts of the case are that at about 9. a.m., on June 23, 2008, the Ecobank bullion van, with registration number GT 8371 G, being driven by Emmanuel Abedu under the escort of General Sergeant William Kweku Quansah of the Adabraka Police Station, was scheduled to convey GH¢60,040.00 to the Madina outlet of the bank located at Madina Zongo Junction.On arrival at the outlet, five armed men who had positioned themselves at different locations within the bank’s premises attacked the policeman and another colleague, General Constable David Agbosu, who was on guard duty at the bank simultaneously.
The attackers managed to collect an AK 47 assault riffle with 10 rounds of ammunition from Constable Agbosu and during a scuffle between Sgt Quansah and one of the alleged robbers, a member of the gang in a waiting unregistered Toyota Matrix saloon car approached Sgt Quansah from his blind side and shot him at the left side.Sgt Quansah later died at the University of Ghana Hospital at Legon while the robbers bolted with the money amidst sporadic firing. Two persons, namely, Richard Adu and Christian Asante Djani, who were then in a commercial vehicle with registration number GW 1116 X, were hit by stray bullets.
The prosecution said immediately after the incident, information was received that some Nigerian nationals living in a house at Nungua arrived in the house with large sums of money and packed their belongings and left the house. The house was located and the three suspects were arrested and when interrogated they denied any involvement in the robbery.
Pedro denied owning a vehicle but when he realised that the police had information regarding a vehicle owned by him, Pedro was said to have confessed that his only vehicle was taken to Nigeria; the police therefore felt that he was involved in the robbery and needed to be kept for further investigations.
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