Fetish priest jailed 10 years for stealing an AK 47 rifle

A fetish priest who sold an AK 47 rifle with 15 rounds of ammunition property of the Ghana Police, to a Togolese businessman has been jailed 10 years by a Circuit Court at Aflao.

Elvis Apedo, aka Gborgbor, 30, pleaded not guilty to stealing, but the court presided over by Mr. Ali Baba Abature thought otherwise after trial.

Prosecuting, Detective Inspector Michael Akemo, told the court that sometime in 2015, seven inmates escaped from the Police cell at Denu under the cover of darkness making away with two AK 47 rifles with 50 rounds of ammunition.

He said Kwaku Azasu, aka Voyo, leader and mastermind of the escape led his colleagues to the house of Apedo at Gomashie-Tagba in Aflao, where he performed rituals for the suspects to fortify them spiritually against being re-arrested.

Mr. Akemo said on Apedo’s advice, the rifles were kept in the shrine for so called safe keeping before the suspects fled into hiding.

He said Apedo later took advantage and exhumed one of the guns with number 1062 with rounds of ammunition and sold it to a Togolese business man, Edo Akpalu at CFA30,000, the equivalence of GH¢ 250.

The prosecution said months after, Azasu aka Voyo, who was arrested at his hide-out in Lome and has since been tried and convicted by the same court, exposed Apedo as the one keeping the rifles.

He said when Apedo got wind that he has been exposed he went into hiding changing locations until his arrest by the police at Dzodze, leading to the arrest of the Togolese businessman, who has also since been prosecuted and convicted for receipt of stolen property after pleading guilty and the rifle retrieved.