Suspects identified at parade

Accra, Sept 15, GNA - Two persons were on Thursday identified among 27 suspects at an identification parade at the Police Headquarter in Accra, for crimes involving armed robbery, shoot-out with Police and car snatching.

The suspects were Shaibu Awudu, 22, a motorbike mechanic and Richard Nyamekye, 21.

Chief Superintendent Amadu Salifu, Officer in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) National Operations, briefing the press after the parade, said four witnesses came to identify the suspects. The rest of the suspects had been arrested for other offences. He said Amadu's gang engaged in a shootout with Police personnel, who had laid ambush in a shop, in an attempted to arrest them. In the process one of the members of the gang, Atta Kwabena died.

He said a woman, who saw the picture of the suspect, published in an Accra daily, came forward to identify him.

Nyamekye was also involved in an armed robbery at the Redco Flats, at Madina, near Accra.

Along with a gang, including a woman in a taxicab they crossed another taxicab in which one Mr Peter Ansong was returning from church, and robbed him of his 120 pounds sterling; a Bible and cell phone with a Kasapa chip.

Using the phone number, the Police liaised with a Kasapa Service Provider to trace and eventually arrest Nyamekye.

While investigations continue, the Police appealed to the public to come forward to identify suspects during identification parades. It gave the assurance that it had modified its identification exercise under which the one who identifies a suspect would be strictly protected.