ATTENDANTS HELP ARREST SUSPECTED CRIMINAL (PAGE 29)

The vigilance of fuel pump attendants at the Asafo Goil Station, led to the arrest of a suspected criminal early on Sunday, October 26, 2008, but his accomplice, who was later identified as Tupac, managed to escape.
The suspect who speaks Twi fluently gave his name as Kwame Yeboah, but later confessed that his real name was Sawana.
Moments after his arrest he was handed over to the police to assist in their investigations but his accomplice who had blood stains on his body and shirt, however, sped off on an unlicensed motorbike he had brought to the fuel station to buy fuel.
This was moments after the attendants had asked him why he had blood stains on parts of his body and shirt.
The suspect, Sawana, who started perspiring profusely as soon as the police arrived at the scene, took them to a shanty area at the Asafo railway line where fish is smoked in large quantities to trace his accomplice.
When the police arrived at the area, which is the property of the Ghana Railway Authority, they found dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, a pair of scissors and hard liquor.
Earlier, in an interview, the suspect, who denied being a criminal, said Tupac had the bloodstains after he was involved in a robbery early on Sunday, but could not disclose where the robbery took place.
He explained that the blood stains were the result of an injury Tupac sustained on the knee and ankle in the course of the robbery, but denied that he (Sawana) was involved.
The suspect, who claimed to be a butcher at the Kumasi Central Market, said he visited the accomplice in the morning of Sunday at a time he (Tupac) was on his way to buy fuel, so he accompanied him, only to be apprehended by the fuel attendants.
Sawana also explained that Tupac, together with one Nkawkaw, also on the run, had stolen the motorbike and used it for their criminal activities and gave the assurance that he would assist the police to arrest them to enable him gain his freedom.
When asked why they were squatters on the premises of the railway company, Sawana said he resided at Atonsu but Tupac and Nkawkaw who had made the area their permanent abode and attack their victims there.
A businessman who witnessed the scene, expressed concern that the Ghana Railway Authority had allowed criminals to use their property as their launching pad to attack innocent residents.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said as a responsible company, Ghana Railway Authority had the responsibility to prevent squatters from using its premises and, therefore, called on the management to initiate policies that would clear the area of criminals.
He also called on the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to liaise with the police to weed out criminals from certain spots in the metropolis.
The businessman said areas such as the Asafo Neoplan Station, Railway Line, Subin Valley, Bantama Race Course and Abinkyi should be regularly patrolled to prevent criminals from converging there and using them as their bases to attack residents in the metropolis.