76 suspected land guards, armed robbers remanded

Out of 127 suspected armed robbers and land guards arrested during anti-armed robbery operations in the Kasoa Police Division and its environs, 76 have been remanded by court.

Twelve out of the remanded suspects have been transferred to Weija Division while the rest are in Accra.

Among them are seven people suspected to be land guards who allegedly killed a driver at Kasoa in the Central Region.

The court also granted bail to 19 other suspects arrested in the special police operation.

Information gathered by The Finder indicates that 20 of the arrested suspects were freed by the police after screening.

According to information, all suspects were profiled in the first phase of screening as the police took their biodata, fingerprints and photographs.

Police embarked on the anti-armed robbery operations following the murder of three people in the Kasoa municipality.

A 52-year-old commercial bus driver was killed at Kasoa on November 7, 2017 following an altercation over transport fares.

Family and residents have been quick to link the murder to a tussle over land, and have since been on a warpath with authorities, demanding justice.

On the same date of November 7, 2017, a housewife was also killed at Top Town Down, in Kasoa.

A receptionist at a hotel around Pink FM was also murdered on November 12, 2017, and these three killings attracted massive media coverage.

In response, Director-General of Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP) Dr George Akuffo Dampare dispatched 250 operational men to Kasoa to augment the operations of the local police.

The operational men who were dispatched on November 14, 2017 intensified day and night patrols in areas identified as hotspots and land guard-prone areas.

Some of the strategies adopted include stop and search, arrest of unregistered motorbikes, and intelligence-led swoops.

Several exhibits; namely, narcotic drugs, arms, unregistered motorbikes, implements used to commit crime, among others, were retrieved from some of the suspects.