No Rape On Amina Bus

DETECTIVE LANCE Corporal Samson Tetteh, the investigator in the Amina mass rape saga, on Thursday informed an Accra Circuit Court that there was only an attempt by some armed robbers to rob the Yutong bus, but that intention did not materialize.

According to him, he was shocked when two weeks into his investigations, he heard that the attempted robbery case he was investigating had turned into a robbery and mass rape issue.

The investigator thought that was a frame-up as he had not come across such information. This was because the driver who reported the incident only stated that there was an attempted robbery and his investigations too had confirmed that.

The investigator was the fifth prosecution witness in the case of Amina Mohammed, the 24-year-old lady who captured national attention following her statement on Adom FM, a Tema-based radio station, that there was a mass rape of women on the Bawku-bound bus during a robbery attack at Kubiase near Ejisu in the Ashanti region.

Led in evidence by the state attorney, Paul Assibi Abariga, the investigator narrated that on October 12, 2010, a case of attempted robbery was transferred to him for investigation by General Lance/Corporal Prosper Gavon, the Non Commission Officer (NCO) of Ejisu police station. He then followed the complainant to the bus to inspect it.

According to him, he observed that the windscreen and the bumper of the vehicle had been dented. Detective Tetteh said he subsequently informed his station officer, Inspector Danso Appiah, who instructed that some other officers should accompany him to the scene.

On arriving at the scene, the investigator disclosed that a police patrol team was already there, so joining forces, some of them combed surrounding bushes while other officers cleared the road for users.

After investigations revealed that it was an attempted robbery, some of the officers returned to their various offices while others stayed behind to ensure safety on the road.

According to him, when he got to his office, he prepared a situation report for his station officer. Detective Tetteh stated that it was two weeks later that he heard of the news on one of the Kumasi-based FM stations. Later, a team of investigators from the CID, Accra, came to Ejisu Police Station and requested that he take them to the scene, which he obliged.

The team, he disclosed, did their investigations and left.

Under-cross examination by Andy Appiah Kubi, the witness admitted that he immediately released the accident vehicle to the driver without instruction from his station officer. He also said that he took a statement from only the driver.

Earlier, General Lance/Corporal Prosper Gavon, the counter NCO, also narrated that on October 12, at about 2:20am, he was at the police station when the driver of the Yutong bus, Samuel Asiedu Sasu, came to report that armed robbers had attempted to rob his bus at Kubiase.

The driver, he said, showed him the accident vehicle which was parked along the roadside. He followed the complainant to the vehicle, where he found that the windscreen had been smashed and the bumper dented.

After the report, the driver demanded a form to be sent to his employers, which he prepared for him. Thereafter he referred the case to Detective Tetteh, then on duty, to continue with investigations.

The witness identified a photograph of the vehicle and tendered it in evidence without any objection from the defence team. The policeman, under-cross examination, said nobody had been arrested in connection with the crime. He confirmed that the police released the accident vehicle to the driver that same day, but could not tell who gave the instruction.

When asked whether he recorded that case in the station diary, General Lance/Corporal Prosper Gavon stated that one female constable, a station orderly, did the recording.

The witness disclosed that this was the first time he was handling an accident case involving a vehicle. He said Detective Tetteh, after visiting the scene, informed him that the robbers had used logs to block the road but he did not find any robbers so removed the logs for road users.

The case has been adjourned to May 12, 2011.