17 land guards arrested for attacking Kwabenya Queenmother

A combined team of police officers from the Special and Tactics (SWAT) and the Counter Terrorism Unit of the Ghana Police Service in the Greater Accra have apprehended seventeen (17) persons together with their leader at Kwabenya, Mr Theophilus Ankama Aryee, and Mr Prosper Aryee, suspected to be some of the notorious land-guards operating in the Greater Accra Region.

Consequently, Mr Ankama Aryee and his brother, Prosper Aryee, a security man at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), who are the ring leaders of the land-guards were arrested following a tipoff by the Anti Land-guards Patrol Operations Team from the police headquarters and the Accra Regional Commander from Avenor in Accra where they run to hide.

Even though they tried resisting arrest, police officers told this paper that the Accra Regional Commander’s team overpowered these notorious land-guards, leading to their arrest. They are currently in police cell in Accra for interrogations and further action.

According to police offers at the police headquarters, the suspects were arrested on Friday, December 8, 2017 for threatening and attacking the Queenmother of Kwabenya Community in Accra, Naa Korkoi Dugbatey, and her followers at an Accra High Court premise on the direct others of their pay-masters, without any provocation.

The police revealed that the suspects who were arrested are allegedly engaged by Mr Aryee and Mr Ankama Aryee from areas such as Avenor Kwabenya, Nima, Sowutuom, Ngleshie Amanfrom, Ofankor-Obimpe, Ashiyie, Quartey Papafio, Adjen Kotoku, Oyarifa, Asalaja, Mayera, Tuba, East Airport and Ayimensah in the Adenta, Weija, Amasaman, Airport and Baatsona to come on motorbikes to the Accra High Court to cause mayhem, threats and attack people from Kwabenya during and after court hearing.

“These are the land -guards we arrested at an Accra High Court Complex and Avenor respectively on Friday, December 8, 2017 who are recruited by Prosper Aryee and Mr. Theophilus Ankama Aryee and usually troop to the court premises by motorbikes to persistently issue threats and attacks on the queen-mother of Kwabenya and her followers anytime they attend court,” the police officers told Today.

The police, through the arrest of the land-guards, were able to impound and retrieve, among other things, military uniforms and pump action guns, machetes, jack knives, live and empty cartridges and several motorbikes.

They explained that these notorious land-guards at night engage in other criminal activities such as robbery, phone snatching and hand bags on gun point in various communities in Accra.

The officers told Today that the Commander in-charge of National Police Operations Unit at Police Headquarters was currently profiling the suspects who are currently caged in the police cell and would be handed over to the Accra Regional Police Command on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 for interrogation and further action.

Meanwhile, in an interview on Saturday December 9, 2017, Kwabenya Queenmother, Naa Korkoi Dugbatey, revealed that the said land-guards in the company of Prosper Aryee and Theophilus Aryee constantly fire gunshots in front of her house every night between 11:00 a.m., and 12:00 p.m., threatening her life and afterwards riding away on motorbikes.

The distraught queen-mother lamented that for the fear of her life she lodged an official complaint with the Commander of the Kwabenya Police Station against these land-guards for which the commander gave her police officers to protect her life and properties.