$5,000 ROBBERY * Four cops interdicted

Front Page: Daily Graphic, March 23, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Police Administration has interdicted four policemen who allegedly attacked and robbed a Belgian national of $5,000, GH¢700 and other personal effects.
The four policemen are Lance Corporal David Koomson of the Panthers Unit; L/Cpl Franklin Turkson of the James Town Police Station; Constable Isaac Shiburah of the Police Hospital and Constable Edward Opoku of the Armoured Car Squadron.
Corporals Shiburah and Opoku are on the run, while L/Cpls Koomson and Turkson, who appeared before the Osu Magistrate Court yesterday on charges of conspiracy to rob and robbery, have been remanded in prison custody to reappear on March 30, 2010.
They will also face a service enquiry.
The Police Administration has, subsequently, placed a handsome bounty on Shiburah and Opoku.
Briefing newsmen in Accra yesterday, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwesi Ofori, said the complainant, Thierry Boinnard, a Belgian resident in the USA, was suspected to have been lured into the country by two unidentified men.
He said the two unidentified men met the complainant at the Fiesta Royale Hotel and took him in a taxi to show him a gold refinery.
On reaching a spot near the main entrance of the Achimota Forest, four policemen in a black VW Golf, with registration number AS 3115 T, allegedly intercepted the taxi carrying the Belgian and the two other men.
According to DSP Ofori, the policemen handcuffed the complainant, beat him and took him to a spot near the Kumbaya Hotel, behind Peace FM in Accra, where the four policemen allegedly robbed the complainant of $5,000, GH¢700, a mobile phone worth $1,000 and a gold wristwatch valued at $25.
He said following a public announcement on an Accra-based radio station that some policemen had robbed a foreigner, all the patrol teams were alerted with the description of the VW Golf car the policemen were driving.
He said one of the patrol teams saw a VW Golf being driven by a policeman around the Achimota Golf Club and stopped it.
He said after initial interrogation, the policeman/driver was arrested and driven to the CID Headquarters for further questioning and it was in the course of that that the policeman allegedly admitted to committing the offence and mentioned the names of the others.
DSP Ofori described the two escapees as a risk to society and, therefore, appealed to members of the public to volunteer information leading to their arrest for a handsome reward.