Prison officers arrested for robbery

The Ashanti Regional Police Command has arrested two prison officers and two civilian accomplices believed to be members of a robbery syndicate operating in the region.

Lance Corporal Prince Quaye, 27, and 2nd Class Officer Adu Mensah, 26, both serving warders at Amanfrom Camp Prison in the region , were caught red-handed.

The security men, in the company of civilian accomplices, Thomas Wiafe, 28, and Farouk Abubakar, 24, one whom was in a military uniform, had gone to a galamsey mining site at Manso Abodom in the Amansie West District to commit the illicit act when they were grabbed.

The latest arrest brings to 10 the number of serving security officers arrested for robbery at various mining sites in the Ashanti region in the last three months.

In August this year, five soldiers, two police officers and an immigration officer, also believed to be members of robbery syndicate operating in some parts of the country, were arrested by the Ashanti Regional Police Command.

They were identified as Lance Corporal Farouk, Lance Corporal Ride-Wan, Private Nasser Gideon and Lance Bombardier Frimpong.

Their counterparts from the police were named as Constable Murtala Musah of the Buffalo Unit and G/Constable Bismark Ntow of Zongo Police Station, in Kumasi, while the immigration officer was identified as Felix Ntaah, a 44-year-old married man with six children stationed at Baglu in the Volta Region.

In the case of the soldiers, while Lance Corporals Farouk and Tommy were with the 4BN in Kumasi, Privates Ahmed Ride-Wan and Nasser Gideon were with the Tamale Air Borne Force, and Lance Corporal Bombardier Frimpong with the 66 Artillery Regiment in Ho.

Briefing the media yesterday in Kumasi, DCOP Augustine Gyening, the Regional Police Commander, said the case of the two prison officers stationed at Amanfrom Camp Prison was not different.

He said the suspects and their two civilian accomplices, on Monday, October 29, went to a Chinese mining site at Manso Abodom with the view to robbing the miners.

Following a tipoff, police officers rushed to the site where they arrested the suspects and their cohort, who were half-way into their operation.

The police commander said some members of the community had apprehended the four-gang men when the law enforcement officers got to the scene.

DCOP Gyening stated that a search conducted on the four suspected robbers revealed two fake military identification cards, five military bayonets and many other security weapons as well as an unspecified sum of money.

The two fake military IDs bore the names of Thomas Wiafe and Umar Sadick and the pictures of Farouk Abubakar and Thomas Wiafe, identifying them as serving officers of the Ghana Armed Forces.

DCOP Gyening disclosed that all the suspects were in police custody assisting with investigations.