6 Cops interdicted

Page 3: Daily Graphic, May 6, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
SIX policemen, including the second in command at the Panthers Unit of the Police Headquarters, have been interdicted on the orders of the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson.
The six have been charged with alleged acts of extortion and loss of weapons.
Five of them are being held on charges of extortion and they include Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) John Tawiah Kuadey, who is the Deputy Head of the Panthers Unit.
ASP Kuadey and his accomplices, Corporal Frederick Amanor Agyemfra, Lance Cpl Francis Botchway, both of the Panthers Unit, Detective Constable Jerome Amuzu and Detective Lance Cpl Owusu Boateng, both of the CID Headquarters, are currently in custody at the Cantonments Police Station.
The sixth policeman, Detective Constable Maxwell Ahadzi of the Anyiwarese District Police Command, is in custody at the Ho Police Station where he is being held for the loss of four single-barrelled guns which were exhibits in a case he was investigating.
The Director of Police Public Affairs, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that ASP Kuadey and his group were being investigated along with five civilians for their alleged involvement in a drug deal.
He mentioned the five civilians as Ganiyu Alhassan Danjumah, John Peprah, Eric Agyemang, Francis Obeng and Clement Agbaglo.
He said the affected officers allegedly invaded a house at Nii Boi Town in Accra on April 28, 2009 to arrest the five civilians who were alleged to be transacting business in cocaine.
DSP Ofori said the policemen arrested four members of the gang but the fifth, Clement Agbaglo, alias Sky, managed to escape with two parcels of a substance suspected to be cocaine and an amount of $44,000.
According to him, Sky was later arrested at his hideout.
He when Sky was arrested, he disclosed that he had met ASP Kuadey at a location where he had allegedly given the officer $15,000, being his share of the $44,000.
He said the acting IGP, therefore, ordered the immediate arrest, detention and interdiction of the policemen, including ASP Kuadey, to assist in the investigations.
With regard to Constable Ahadzi, DSP Ofori said he claimed he left the weapons behind a cupboard in the general office, contrary to instructions that he should make entries and keep them in the armoury awaiting a court order.
He explained that three of the weapons were retrieved by officials of the Department of Wildlife in a case of hunting in a prohibited area.
He said the fourth weapon was also an exhibit in a case of attempted murder before the court.
DSP Ofori said the court had given a restitution order last week that the guns be given to the Department of Wildlife, only for Ahadzi to claim that they could not be found.
He said initially the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio-Atinga, had ordered the detention of all the policemen at the police station and added that Constable Ahadzi then owned up and said he had left the guns behind the cupboard in the general office and gone on his annual leave.
DSP Ofori said the acting IGP had made it clear that no policeman or woman was above the law and would be treated as such when found culpable in any offence.
That way, he said, personnel of the service would begin to sit up and do their work in a more professional manner.