Diplomat robbed at knife point at Golden Tulip

When the Commissioner of Korea Customs, Mr Yung-Moon Kim, applied for a Ghanaian visa, which was granted, bought his ticket and sat in a plane en-route to Ghana, he was in high spirits especially when this was his first time of visiting Ghana, the first country in sub-Sahara Africa to have gained independence from colonial rule.

The nice impression he had about the country was, however, cut short when he came under a knife attack at no other place other than the Golden Tulip Hotel, a five star hotel facility at the heart of Accra that should have boasted of modern security protection. To save his life from being cut short by his assailant, he kowtowed to his dictates, and when the drama was over, huge sums of money plus his Korea passport had been taken away.

The assailant had reportedly knocked at the door of his victim, and thinking that it might be a staff of the hotel, he opened the door only for the assailant to pull a knife and threaten to stab him if he made any noise. It was then that he demanded and seized both his money and passport.

Information obtained from a credible source indicates that the incident happened at the Golden Tulip Hotel, on Thursday, April 4, 2019. Mr Yung-Moon had lodged in the 5-star hotel ahead of a contract signing between the government of Korea and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

When The Chronicle visited the hotel on the first day of its investigation into the incident, it was told that the company’s procedure did not allow anyone apart from the General Manager to speak to the media on the issue. After meeting about three personalities, including a receptionist, the paper could still not meet the General Manager. At the reception, the reporter was directed to the Human Resource (HR) office, because the GM had gone for a meeting.

The HR Department, after hearing the subject, also directed this reporter to the Security Department, and subsequently to another boss. The reporter was made to wait over hot coffee and cake for feedback from the GM, who, at this time, the reporter was told, was in a meeting at the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

After waiting for a while at the reception of the hotel, the feedback was that the GM who had then arrived from the meeting at the Netherlands Embassy was not in a good state to have the interview. The contact details of the reporter were taken to arrange for a better day.

However, after three solid days nothing had been heard from the hotel. The reporter made a follow up on the fourth day (Yesterday) after the first visit, but the person to talk to him was in a meeting. Meanwhile, in a phone interview, the Head of Security, Mr James Adoku, whose phone number the paper got on the second visit, indicated that the matter had been reported at the Airport Police Station the same day the incident occurred. He added that every bit of information could be sourced from there, as, according to him, the police had started investigations into the matter, confirmation of the unfortunate attack.

Meanwhile, the Commander of Airport Police Station, Mr Simon Asiedu, told The Chronicle last week Thursday, the first day the reporter also visited Golden Tulip Hotel, that he had no idea of the issue and promised to quickly crosscheck.

In follow up interview yesterday, the Commander said during the first interaction with the reporter he had no information, but now he had been briefed, and that he would arrange for the paper to speak to the Public Affairs Department of the Greater Accra Police Command.

More anon!