Two gay men arrested for blackmail

Two suspected criminals, said to be gays, are in the grips of the Tesano Divisional Police Command on charges of blackmail.

The suspects, Stephen Torsu and Aikins Atitsogbe, together with four others now at large, allegedly forced and took nude photos of a victim they had robbed in demand for additional GHC1,000.

The four have been identified only as Courage, Willie, Semanu and Dickson.

Police said the six lured the victim (name withheld), who is a social worker, to their house and stripped him naked, took a number of pictures of him after they robbed him off his mobile phone and GHC70. Tesano Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Lydia Donkor, said Torsu met the victim on an internet dating platform known as grindr.com and established friendship.

She said Torsu, on April 1, 2017, invited the victim to his house at Christian village, near Achimota in Accra. Chief Superintendent Donkor said a few minutes after the victim arrived, Aikins and the other accomplices came in and locked the door.

The police said the suspects forced the victim to strip naked and collected his mobile phone, a power bank and GHC70. The Commander said the victim was released amidst threats of posting the nude pictures on the internet, if he fails to return with GHC1,000.

The victim after taking a vow, reported the incident to the police. Aikins and Torsu were later arrested in the process of taking the GHC1,000 from the victim. Chief Superintendent Lydia Donkor advised the public to worry about the kind of things they do on the internet and the friends they make.