5 Soldiers received $4,000 ransom

Page 47: Daily Graphic, August 13, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
IT has emerged that the five soldiers allegedly involved in the kidnapping of the Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Ghana, Mr Albert Mmegwa, were paid $4,000 as their share of the $100,000 ransom.
It has also emerged that it was Lance Corporal Godwin Avege who allegedly drove Mr Mmegwa’s Range Rover while he and his driver, Mr Richard Makumator, who had been blindfolded, were sandwiched by the other soldiers and taken to a house at East Legon, where suspect George Agyei was the caretaker.
After collecting the $100,000 ransom, the suspects allegedly drove Mr Mmegwa a Toyota Corolla taxi, with registration number GR 4809-09, and dumped him in a bush around Legon PRESEC on April 8, 2009.
Six civilians and five soldiers are currently on remand for allegedly kidnapping Mr Mmegwa on April 6, 2009.
The civilians are Moses Ayouba, 32, alias Chairman, who is alleged to be the kingpin of the gang; Mark Bernard alias Karo, 24; Abdulai Mohammed Takai, 33; all Nigerians; Foster Senoo, 27; Samuel Eklu, 24, and George Adjei, all Ghanaians.
The five soldiers, who are all Lance Corporals, are Henry Adu Yeboah, 25; Godwin Avege 23; Patrick Akeleyira, 26; Thomas Obeng Agyei, 25, and Andrews Dokyi, 26.
At the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra yesterday, the five soldiers resisted being taken pictures of them by the CID photographers as part of their investigative procedures.
Not even would the soldiers heed to calls by the CID boss, DCOP Frank Adu-Poku, until personnel from the Panthers Unit were called in to compel them to have their pictures taken.
Mr Adu-Poku told newsmen that the conduct of the soldiers smacked of indiscipline.
He said he had accordingly asked that they should be remanded in prison custody, since their continuous stay in the police cells would be a bad influence on the other inmates.
He said the 11 suspects had been charged with conspiracy to commit crime, kidnapping and extortion.
Mr Adu-Poku explained that taking pictures and fingerprints of suspects was part of the investigative process and made it clear that “nobody was above the law and every suspect would have to go through it”.
He said investigations had so far showed that the kidnappers stopped Mr Mmegwa in the middle of the road as he headed towards his Trassaco estate.
He said the suspects ordered the driver of the managing director, Mr Makumator, to come down and open the boot of the Range Rover vehicle.
According to Mr Adu-Poku, the suspects pushed the driver to the back seat of the vehicle to join Mr Mmegwa after which the soldiers allegedly showed the MD a letter suggesting that he (Mmegwa) was wanted at the Military Headquarters.
He said suspect Avege then allegedly took the steering wheel of the vehicle while they blindfolded their victims in the car.
Mr Adu-Poku said suspects Foster Senoo and Moses Ayouba drove in a taxi ahead of the victim’s Range Rover and took him to a house at East Legon where suspect George Agyei was the caretaker.
“The victims were then kept in a separate dark room and their legs and hands were tied up to a chair on which they sat, blindfolded and without food,” he added.
The CID boss said the five soldiers then drove Mr Mmegwa’s vehicle and abandoned it at Madina.
While in the room, Mr Adu-Poku said the leader of the gang, Moses Ayouba, alias Chairman, collected the MD’s phone to a make a series of phone calls to officials of the bank to demand the ransom.
He said an official of the bank then allegedly met suspect Samuel Eklu around a hotel at North Dzorwulu to collect the $100,000.
Mr Adu-Poku said the leader of the military team, Henry Adu Yeboah, then allegedly met Ayouba in front of the Trade Fair Centre and gave him $4,000 as the soldiers’ share of the ransom.
The Daily Graphic, in its Thursday, August 6, 2009 edition, reported the arrest of six persons suspected to have kidnapped Mr Albert Mmegwa, four months after his abduction on April 6, 2009.
The five soldiers were later arrested after their names were mentioned as accomplices.
Although the bank had earlier denied paying any ransom for his release, the police confirmed that $100,000 was paid before Mr Mmegwa was released on April 8, 2009.