Cops culpable in suspects’ escape will be punished - Police

Any police officer who is found to have helped prisoners who were being transported to the Eastern Regional Police Command to escape will not be spared, Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service Superintendent Cephas Arthur has said.

“That is why we have laws, rules and processes that ensure that whoever allows a suspect to escape faces the music. In fact, as it has happened, they will be given 10 days within which to produce the suspects otherwise they will answer for it and it [punishment] could be anything including dismissal,” he told Prince Minkah on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday August 18.

Two policemen were on Tuesday August 15 named in a failed heist at Maame Krobo involving a bullion van transporting cash belonging to the GCB Bank at Nkawkaw to the Afram Plains.

The driver of the van was killed while two police officers were arrested together with a civilian accomplice. However, while being transferred to Koforidua on Wednesday July 18, the three suspects bolted as the car made a stop to refuel.

But Supt Arthur has described the circumstances under which the suspects outwitted the police guards and escaped as unacceptable.

“It is very unfortunate and the police will do everything possible to bring them to book, and that is why the police will do everything possible to investigate to the bottom [of the matter],” the police officer added.

The incident has led to residents of the Afram Plains, including Afram Plains South MP Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye, declaring that they have no trust in the police there, and have asked for a fresh batch of police officers to be posted to the district.

But Supt Arthur explained that if the Ghana Police Service had wanted to shield the suspected officers, they would not have arrested them in the first place.

He called on the public to exercise patience for a probe to be carried out to unravel the facts surrounding the matter.

“They should exercise patience and wait for investigations because under no circumstance will a police officer who is complicit in this incident be allowed to go scot free,” he reiterated.

Meanwhile angry residents of Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains North district have torched the police station in the town.

One of the two fugitive cops has been re-arrested. Lance Corporal Kusi Abrokwah was re-arrested at Nkawkaw on Thursday, 18 August.