POLICEMEN CHARGED FOR THEFT (PAGE 27, MIRROR, OCT 16, 2010)

From Della Russel Ocloo, Tema

FIVE policemen who are standing trial at the Tema Circuit Court for their role in the disappearance of 8000 bags of sugar they intercepted on the Tema Motorway in January, this year are to reappear on October 20, 2010 to open defence in the case in which they have been charged for conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.
Lance Corporal Joseph Tetteh Okoso, L/Cpl Kingsford Kabanyi of Ashaiman Police Station, L/Cpl Anthony Owusu, Francis Yirenkyi and Edem Kuleosi of Teshie Police Station and Inspector (rtd) Michael Amematsro were said to have arrested the driver and the articulated truck carting the products at the Ashaiman overhead bridge on the motorway.
A seventh person, identified only as an official of the Immigration Service of Ghana, is said to be at large.
Prosecuting the case, Chief Inspector Adolphus Otchere told the court, presided over by Justice Lorenda Owusu, that the accused persons on January 18, this year at about 8 p.m. intercepted a truck load of sugar enroute to Kumasi and arrested the driver, Stephen Boadu near the overhead bridge.
The accused persons, according to the prosecutor, told the driver he was being sent to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra for questioning after forcing him out of the truck.
Chief Inspector Otchere said the men took the driver to the Tetteh Quarshie roundabout where they demanded money from him although he pleaded with them to return him to the vehicle to enable him lock it up.
He stated that the policemen drove back to the Tema end of the motorway, turned and headed back to the Accra end where they later abandoned the driver at the cattle underpass bridge near the Adjei-Kojo junction after they were able to extort an amount of GH¢10 which was in his possession at the time of his arrest.
The prosecutor said the driver later picked a taxi to the spot where the vehicle was abandoned but realised to his dismay that the truck and its content had disappeared.
He then lodged a complaint at the Ashaiman Police station, which led to the arrest of L/Cl Kabanyi, whose vehicle was allegedly used on the night of the operation.