Police foil armed robbery

Page 19: Daily Graphic, September 12, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
TWO suspected armed robbers were arrested last Wednesday, September 9, 2009, by the police as they began to assemble to rob in a house at New Achimota, Accra.
Maxwell Mohammed Amin, 24, alias Pussycat, and Uche Ogbonna, 28, are currently in custody at the Accra Regional Police Command.
Surprisingly, Pussycat, a deportee from Italy, was on the wanted list of the police for leading a robbery operation at Ashongman, this year.
Some arms were later retrieved from his residence at the Sodom and Gomorrah slum after he was pursued to the house.
Briefing newsmen in his office yesterday, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said within the month of August 2009, the police had information that some armed robbers wanted to attack a house around the Kingsby Hotel at New Achimota.
He said based on that intelligence report, the police planted some personnel in the said house, and for four consecutive occasions, the armed robbers failed to show up.
According to him, the police became suspicious that there was someone in the house who was relaying information to the armed robbers.
ACP Yohuno said when the police had the latest information, they decided not to lay ambush in the house, but to monitor events from a close range.
He said in the night of September 9, 2009, the day the gang was expected to attack the house, the police monitored the grouping place of the gang until they all assembled.
Unfortunately for the police, he said, three members of the gang managed to escape, while Pussycat and Uche were arrested.
ACP Yohuno said it was at the police station that Pussycat was identified as a member of the robbery gang that robbed a house at Ashongman Estates on June 28, this year.
He said it was also detected that Pussycat had trimmed his hair, making him look different from who he was in a picture the police had.
He recalled that on June 28, 2009, some robbers attacked a house at Ashongman and took away GH¢2,800, $1,500, £1,000 and 10 mobile phones.
The Daily Graphic, in its July 1, 2009 edition, published the arrest of two members of the said gang, identified then as Joseph and Ben, while they were attempting to escape from neighbours and the police when their victim shouted for help.
In its August 7, 2009 edition, the Daily Graphic again reported the arrest of two more suspects involved in the June 28, 2009 Ashongman robbery.
Rauf Suleiman, 28, and Godwin Kofi, 21, are the latest to be arrested after two others, Joseph Adam, 21, and Ben Kwame, 22, had been arrested on the day of the robbery.
The fifth suspect, who was then identified only as Pussycat, was the only suspect yet to be arrested.
ACP Yohuno said it was a good news arresting Pussycat in the foiled New Achimota robbery as all members of the Ashongman robbery had been nabbed.
He said soon after the Ashongman robbery, Pussycat had moved out of the Sodom and Gomorrah area to live at Abeka, where he was operating from, with new members of a robbery gang.