A notorious Kumasi-based armed robber by the name '2PM' has narrated the events that led to how celebrated senior police officer, COP Kofi Boakye, nabbed him years ago.
Speaking to Kingdom Plus FM and monitored by GhanaWeb, he said that he became so used to robbery so much after he got exposed to the crime at the early age of 14, in Nigeria.
According to him, he had fortified himself so much and become so experienced in the handling of different types of ammunition until he returned to Ghana and established a notorious name for himself.
2PM explained that one day, he had been on a spree, robbing some six different installations and felt so on top of the world.
He described, for instance, how he outwitted some security guards and stole monies from a prepaid company on an evening when Kumasi Asante Kotoko was playing a crucial football game.
“I was in front of a certain bank at Abuakwa – I was breaking into a prepaid company at Abuakwa to take their money. There were some security men around it just about 7pm. At the time, Kotoko was playing a match so I went to stand by them and pretended I was enjoying the game with them until their attention was no longer on me and then I went in to steal the money.
“Earlier that day, I had gone to steal from a church, and then to three other banks and then a Ghana prepaid company, as well as two other companies, totalling six operations. It was that very evening that Kofi Boakye vowed he would arrest me,” he said.
Continuing his narration, 2PM told the radio host, Kwadwo Boateng Collins, that in the evening of that same day, unbeknownst to him, the police chief, COP Kofi Boakye, and his men, had been dispatched into his community to nab him.
Being someone who had good friends in the service, he said he would usually get tip-offs on when the police were coming, but that evening, Kofi Boakye played a smarter move on him by using a completely new team of policemen.
“So, that evening, when I was going around on my operations, Kofi Boakye was also on the move. A high-ranking police officer as he was but he was also in the field with his boys. One thing that he did that, even till now, I keep saluting him for, is that he did not move with the same team that he went on the operation with to come and arrest me.
“He intentionally asked a different team and gang to come after me so that I wouldn’t be aware of their movements… they really dealt with me. Kofi Boakye did not spare me at all. You can go and ask those who were at his office that day: I was in so much hot waters,” he added.
Ahead of his arrest at Abuakwa, 2PM said that being confident that all the policemen who could come after him were people he had in his pockets, literally, he made a move to go after them instead.
Without knowing it, he added, Kofi Boakye had spread his men – both uniformed and ununiformed, around the town, with every one of them strategically looking for him.
Thinking that he could easily outwit them, he added that the last thing he expected was to see a high-ranking officer like that leading the search for him, and when they did arrest him, he did not even realise it.
“I was arrested at Abuakwa (sic) but with my arrest, what happened was that they sent some men there and then the person who looks out for me called me to inform me about it. That was when I said to myself that who are these small policemen who refused to call me when they were coming? That was how boastful I was too.
“Unknown to me, it was the chief himself who was coming, and so I planned to have revenge on the policemen. On my way, I was high on cocaine, and tramadol, thinking I was going to face them. So, it was even someone’s car parked on the side of the road that I moved. On my return, I came to park the stranger’s car and decided to outwit them by jumping into a passenger car but unknown to me, that car was full of policemen.
“So, just when I was about to alight in front of my house to get money and return to Accra, not knowing they had surrounded the whole town. When I got down, it was like a war front… I then used a certain corner, hoping it would be my way out but then a non-uniformed policeman grabbed me at my waist. I asked him why he has grabbed me and then he told me that I was the one they were looking for.
“Immediately, I head-butted him and then he went to the ground and started bleeding. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of Kofi Boakye. In almost a split second, before I knew it, I was in a car, standing in front of Kofi Boakye. He looked at me and said, ‘You are the 2PM eh? Today, I’m about to beat you,’” he narrated.
COP Kofi Boakye has been celebrated several times for being a policeman who has a knack for putting criminals on their toes, especially in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Meanwhile, catch the latest GhanaWeb TV Election Desk interview with Francis Addai-Nimoh, as he discusses his plans to become the NPP's flagbearer, below:
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