Police arrest suspected armed robber

Page 47: Daily Graphic, August 6, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE police have arrested a 23-year-old suspected armed robber, Stanley Kwabla Kuwornu, said to be the second-in-command to George Aryeetey, who was arrested on July 22, this year.
Kuwornu was arrested at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle on Tuesday, August 5, 2009 following a tip-off.
The Aryeetey-Kuwornu gang is reported to be responsible for a number of robberies in the Accra-Tema area, including filling stations.
The latest was a robbery at East Legon in which all the suspects escaped but abandoned an AK 47 rifle on a farm when the police closed in on them on July 13, 2009.
Unknown to Kuwornu that the police had retrieved the AK 47, he led them to the scene after his arrest to retrieve it.
He has confessed to taking part in four robberies with Aryeetey at the Achimota-East Legon area within the last six months.
Briefing newsmen in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said in the July 13, 2009 robbery, the gang had attacked a house at East Legon and robbed the occupants of some of their personal effects.
He said when the police got to the crime scene, the suspects were about to drive away the house owner’s vehicle but they had to abandon it and scale the wall on seeing the police.
He commended members of the public for their continuous support to the police in the fight against armed robbery.
The Daily Graphic, in its July 24, 2009 edition, published that a 28-year-old man, described by the police as a hardened criminal, had been arrested.
Aryeetey had been on the police wanted list since he engaged them in an exchange of fire and escaped in a number of robbery cases.
They said he was on record as having been convicted of a similar crime in 1999.
A pump action gun, three locally manufactured pistols, one empty shell and personal effects were retrieved from his room in a hotel.
He had scars from what the police said were bullet wounds on his legs, thighs and palm.