Dormaa-Ahenkro police saves accused from mob action

Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), Jan. 16, GNA – The police saved Kwasi Atoe, alias Calvin Aryeh and also known as Lord Boahen, a suspected fraudster, from being lynched by an irate mob at the premises of the circuit court in Dormaa-Ahenkro.

The mob is suspected to be staff of Dormaa Municipal Assembly. Atoe and two accomplices, Daniel Nii Okine and Samuel Kwaku Okyere, both at large, conspired and fraudulently stole GHc50,000.00, in July, 2011 belonging to the assembly.

The court presided over by Mr. Alexander Osei-Tutu, remanded Atoe, who was accused of conspiracy to steal, stealing and forgery, and adjourned the case.

The police led Atoe out of the court room only to come face-to-face with the waiting mob, who demanded that he was released to them for instant justice.

A section of the aggrieved mob blamed Atoe and his accomplices for their detention and subsequent subjection to a barrage of questions by the police in July, 2011 after the theft.

It took the police hectic time to whisk the accused into a vehicle and sent to Sunyani.

Inspector Bismark Boye-Lartey told the court that the complainant was the Dormaa Municipal Coordinating Director, and the accused owner of a business, Modern Company Limited, operating in Tema and Accra.

He said in July, 2011, the Assembly requested its balance from Dormaa Ahenkro branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank and detected that GHC55,000.00 had been stolen.

Insp. Boye-Lartey said records at the bank indicated that the accused had withdrawn money from the bank using several cheques purported

to have been issued by the Municipal Assembly.

The prosecution said the accused had forged the signatures of the Dormaa Municipal Chief Executive, Municipal Coordinating Director and Municipal Finance officer.

Insp. Boye-Lartey said internal investigations confirmed that several cheque leaflets from separate cheque books belonging to the Assembly had been removed without authority.

He said the accused bolted until January 10 this year when a witness in the case spotted Atoe at the main office of Barclays Bank in Accra and caused his arrest.