Police blows cover of informant

The life of a 38-year old man, who for years, has provided useful leads, resulting in the arrest of armed robbers and car snatchers in the Kumasi Metropolis, is being threatened after the police failed to protect his identity.

He claims he cannot find a place to hide - having been chased out of the house by some hardened criminals who had vowed to take revenge.

The man (name withheld) had on April 6, 2011, provided the police with information that led to the killing of two robbers at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Round-about during a firefight and the capture of three others.

This was when his troubles began. The police blew his cover during the court trial of the three arrested robbers and he said he had ever since not known peace.

He kept receiving death threats through phone calls and decided to sell his vehicle to flee to Sweden and later France, but that did not end his misery as he was sent back home.

The distraught looking informant told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he feels unsafe, completely empty and let down by the police while performing a patriotic duty to his nation.

He said what he found even more heartbreaking was the apparent disinterest by the police to provide him any form of protection.

“The criminals know my house and I have no doubt in my mind that they would carry out their threat.”

He said before the last robbery incident, he had assisted the then “Buffalo Unit” to recover 13 stolen vehicles and the arrest of the culprits.

“I am inclined to believe that the police deliberately exposed my identity because I tried stopping them from hiding some of the seized cars.

“The officers had reported retrieving eight stolen vehicles but I said no and insisted that they were 13.

“This might not have gone down with some of them and I am convinced that, what they did was not just an accident.”

He showed the GNA letters written and signed by a Senior Police Officer on July 21, 2011, that recommended the payment of informant allowance to the man in connection with the KATH Round-about operation.

There is another letter that showed that the police had been working with him since 2009.