Notorious land-guard busted

The Greater Accra Regional Police Command has apprehended a 44-year-old man, Abdul Aziz Ayine, alias Azumah, alleged to be a notorious land-guard who has been terrorising residents of Bortianor, near Weija in Accra.

According to the police, the suspect did not work in isolation but with eight other suspects who are on the police wanted list.

Abdul Aziz Ayine, who is a resident of Race Course, near Santa Maria, a suburb of Accra, is said to have been on the police wanted list for the past five years until his arrest on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 with a bench warrant.

The Greater Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Effia Tengey, who confirmed the arrest of the suspect, could however, not give details since investigations were ongoing.

Addressing journalists in Accra yesterday, the Managing Director (MD) of Alrotech, Mr. Roland Albert Tetteh, said the suspect has over the years terrorised workers of Alrotech Company on their land situated at Bortianor in the Greater Accra Region.

According to him, somewhere in 2014, Azumah led a group of land guards and attacked workers of Alrotech with machetes which led to the injury of one Alhaji Zaeed.

He said there was a similar attack by the suspect on April 20, 2016 for which a warrant was issued for his arrest but the prosecutor failed to execute the action.

According to him, the suspect again on April 18, 2016 attacked workers of Alrotech in the same manner and caused serious injury to a worker.

Unable to contain the series of attacks by the suspect, Mr. Tetteh said he reported the matter to the police who processed it for the courts, but the suspect failed to appear.

In view of the suspect’s failure to appear in court, the court placed him on police radar.

According to the CEO of Alrotech, the company requested for a copy of the arrest warrant from the Head of Prosecution at the Greater Accra Regional Police Command but was refused until they applied for an extract from the court which was used to arrest the suspect at the court premises when he appeared in a contempt case.

However, as of press time yesterday, Today gathered from police sources that Abdul Aziz Ayine has been granted bail.