FIVE ARRESTED FOR STEALING RAIL METALS (Page 48)

7/08/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
FIVE men have been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for stealing rail metals belonging to the Ghana Railway Company Limited.
The five were spotted packing the metals into a Mitsubishi truck with registration number GR. 5415 H near Gate 33 in the Airport area at about 1am by a police patrol team.
The suspects are Iddrisu Amadu, Kwabena Anteaboa, Kwabena Asare, Baba Yakubu and Kwasi Ga. Two other accomplices, Eric Vivor and Bright Acheampong, both security men from the Magnum Security Force, who were on duty at the time, are at large.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the CID, Inspector J. B. Darkwa, on July 25, 2008 at about 2 am, the Panther 4 crew on night patrol duties, led by Inspector Patrick Tano, arrested the suspects while on their night patrol duties in the Airport area.
He said the suspects were seen coming out of a yard belonging to the Railway, where two security men from the Magnum Security Force, a private security company, were on guard duty.
Inspector Darkwa said when they were questioned about their action, they informed the patrol men that they were hired by one Issahaka, now at large, to collect some scraps he had purchased from the area to Tema.
He said further investigations revealed that the iron rails, numbering about 50, were the property of Ghana Railways Company, which had been kept in the yard for repair works on the rail lines.
He said the two security men, who had been performing night duties at Gate 33 for sometime now, bargained with Issahaka and sold the said metals to him on the afternoon of July 24, 2008.
The said Issahaka went to the place with a hired Mitsubishi truck with registration No. GR 5415 H driven by Iddrisu Amadu, and the other suspects to collect the items.
However, the suspects alleged that when they went into the yard, they could not lift the metals because they were long and very heavy.
They then abandoned the idea and decided to go home and as soon as they came out of the yard, they were arrested by the patrol men who handed them over to the police.
Upon interrogation, Vivor admitted that he and his colleague bargained with Issahaka to sell the rails for a price of GH¢35 each but they had not collected any money from him.
It was agreed that payment would be effected if the items were collected out of the yard.
The suspects are assisting police investigations while efforts are being made to apprehend Bright Acheampong and Issahaka.