Midnight Raid On Asabee

GUN-WIELDING men believed to be National Security operatives stormed a private residence at Cantonments in Accra during the wee-hours of last Friday and in an armed robbery style, towed away a black Peugeot 607 with registration number CR250X belonging to Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, former Minister for Information.

The security operatives were said to have gone for the car with a towing truck and a forklift, as the keys were with Asamoah-Boateng aka Asabee.

Asabee had bought and paid for the said car from the government of Ghana and had parked it at a friend’s house when the gun-wielding operatives forcefully went for it. They reportedly threatened to arrest any member of that household who would dare stand in their way.

Another group of security personnel, comprising two officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and four gun-wielding police men, last Thursday invaded the same house in a similar ‘Rambo style’ and were about to seize and tow the car away when they had a call from the National Security that the operation should be suspended.

The reason given for the operation was that the said vehicle was a stolen car and thus they had “orders from above” to seize it.

Reports said on Thursday, the security operatives were in the process of fork-lifting the vehicle onto the towing truck when Asabee coincidentally drove into the house and started to challenge them.

He insisted the vehicle was not a stolen one and that he could produce all the necessary documentation to prove that it was a paid-for vehicle. After placing phone calls to a few persons at the National Security, the gun-wielding invaders were asked to abandon the operation.

They however returned at midnight of the following day and took the car away without any notice to Asabee.

Security sources told DAILY GUIDE that among those who orchestrated the operation was a deputy Minister who owns a pro-government newspaper. He was said to have schemed at the corridors of power to get the Castle to order the BNI to go chasing after the said car.

The source said when the car’s registration number was given to the BNI, a search through their documents showed that indeed, the National Security had a car with that number plate but it was nowhere to be found.

“We had information that the vehicle may be part of the ones which were sold out but the buyers are yet to do the change of ownership... the decision was that since the car was parked in someone else’s house we should get some journalists and go for it and they would write that it was a stolen car …it would have been a successful operation but we did not have the car keys so we were about to use a towing truck to move it when Asabee came there and started to call some big men.

“We were then asked to suspend the operation and that our next target would be Elizabeth Ohene; we are still tracking where her vehicle may be hidden,” the source disclosed.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo