BUSINESSMAN ARRESTED FOR ROBBERY (PAGE 18, SEPT 17, 2010)

THE Sakumono Police have arrested a Nungua-based businessman for alledged robbery.
The suspect, Michael Kwabena Rockson, 25, was arrested on August 19, this year at about 1.00p.m. after he raided a house at Coastal Estate on the Spintex road.
The suspect was said to have scaled the wall of the building after successfully covering the electrical barbed-wires with a blanket.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Sakumono District Commander, Superintendent Alex Kojo Wowolo, said a police patrol team on duty rounds in the vicinity was alerted by a neighbour who heard an unusual noise emanating from a nearby house although occupants were reported to have left for work earlier in the day.
According to Supt. Wowolo, the suspect scaled the wall into another compound in an attempt to escape upon seeing members of the patrol team who managed to enter the compound where Rockson was busily packing household effects after breaking into the room using a hack saw, car jack and other cutting equipment.
He was subsequently arrested after a hot chase. Supt Wowolo said the suspect, who drove a Chrysler saloon car with registration number GR 1102-10, often parks his vehicle in front of the house he was going to rob and armed with his own padlock, would lock the main entrance upon entry, thereby denying original occupants an entry, should they appear in the course of his operations.
A search conducted in his home revealed a 23-inch plasma television, an Acer laptop computer and living room furniture, among other household effects. The suspect, who also wore hand gloves at the time of his arrest, claimed to be the owner of V-Jay Art and Gallery located at Nungua and said he scaled the wall to prevent being lynched by residents who besieged his vehicle upon the arrival of the police.
Rockson who denied breaking into the compound in his caution statement, however, told the police that he entered the compound to collect a debt owed him by a client whose name and telephone number he could not provide. Superintendent Wowolo said the suspect would be put before court after investigations.
He bemoaned the indifferent attitude of Ghanaians; where persons residing nearby do not care to know each other’s name let alone exchange greetings, and appealed to the general public, particularly people living in estates, to engage their neighbours through the exchange of telephone numbers to enable them to enquire from each other suspicious activities and prying sounds from within. This, he said, would go a long way to help the police combat crime effectively.