BNI RESCUES CAPTIVE * 3 Kidnappers in custody 8 2 accomplices on the run

Front Page: October 31, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
PERSONNEL of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), on Wednesday night rescued the Israeli businessman who had been held captive by gunmen in Accra since October 19.
Dror Weinstein, 62, was rescued at about 11:10pm on Wednesday.
Three of his captors — Alex Sampson Ojanomare alias Leonard, Clifford Ogheonovo Osiobe and Blessing Osiobe Muliaga, the younger brother of Clifford — who are all Nigerians, are currently in custody.
The victim, who said he was tortured and made to sleep naked while in captivity, mentioned Sampson Ojanomare as having led his accomplices to kidnap him and that two guards of Sampson collected $13,000.
Two others — identified as Felicia Baah-Wiredu, who is alleged to have lured Dror into the country, and Albert Koomson — are currently on the run.
The kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of $500,000 but later back-tracked and agreed to collect $300,000.
The National Security Co-ordinator, Dr Sam Amoo-Ghartey, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that although the Israeli government had indicated its willingness to send a member of the Mozzart to assist their Ghanaian counterparts to investigate the kidnapping of Dror, the security agencies lived up to their billing by rescuing the Israeli.
He said investigations had revealed that Felicia, who posed as a daughter of the late Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, invited Dror into the country to assist her retrieve a treasure that her father had left in the custody of a private security firm.
Accordingly, he said, Dror arrived in Ghana on October 15, 2008 with a Luthansa flight and checked in at the Penta Hotel for a night.
Dr Amoo-Ghartey said Dror checked out of the hotel the next day and moved into the Airport West Hotel on October 16, 2008.
All that while, he said, Dror was in the company of Felicia and Albert, who Felicia introduced as her brother and an engineer by profession.
The National Security Co-ordinator said Dror checked out of the Airport West Hotel on October 17, 2008 and checked in at the Protea Hotel at East Legon for two days and was allegedly kidnapped on October 19, 2008.
He said the kidnappers allegedly took Dror to an unknown house at Ashongman where he was left in the company of another person, identified only as Tony, also a Nigerian.
Dr Amoo-Ghartey said while in the custody of Tony, Dror informed the Israeli government, his family and his business partner.
Reports of his kidnapping, however, got to the security agencies on Sunday, October 19, 2008 after the Israeli government notified the Ghanaian Government on the issue, he said.
He said apart from Dror’s business partner who parted with $500 to the kidnappers, no money changed hands.
Dr Amoo-Ghartey said the BNI did everything possible to track the kidnappers and after a lot of efforts, the BNI arrested three of them and used them as a bait to negotiate the release of Dror.
He said Dror was dropped around the Atomic Police Station where he was made to take a taxi to the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra to be received by officials of the BNI.
He said the Israeli Government had already sent a message of commendation to the Ghanaian security agencies for the wonderful and professional work done to rescue Dror.
Dr Amoo-Ghartey urged the international community to disabuse their minds about kidnapping in Ghana, saying that it was rare.
He, however, urged businessmen and firms to be careful in their transactions in order not to fall into the hands of tricksters.
Meanwhile, the head of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Aning, has said the issue of kidnapping had become the new phenomenon of criminal gangs, something that was quite worrying.
He said he suspected that phenomenon was being perpetrated by business partners who had been cheated and wanted to find an alternative to recoup their money.
He explained that the resort to kidnapping, if not dealt with immediately, was going to become a booming business “because the investment in it is low and the dividend high, since families would be desperate to reunite with their loved ones due to the emotional attachment”.
Dr Aning urged Ghanaians to disabuse their minds of the fact that kidnapping was uncharacteristic of the Ghanaian.
“We do not do ourselves any good if we say a particular crime is not a Ghanaian style. It is part of the societal change and we must gird our loins to deal with the problem,” he said.
He said it was on a similar vein that Ghanaians saw armed robbery, drug trafficking and violent crime as not associated with the Ghanaian society but which had now become a nightmare for the country.
Dr Aning, therefore, advised Ghanaians to be careful with whom they dealt with as business partners and become a bit more conscious of their surroundings, as well as take their personal security more serious.
He said the government needed to equip the security agencies with the requisite gadgets and appropriate training to the personnel so that they could deal with the menace with ease.