POLICE ARREST THREE SUSPECTED COW THIEVES (PAGE 35, MIRROR)

From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi.

A routine motor check on the Kumasi-Sunyani trunk road by personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service has led to the arrest of two suspected cattle thieves.
The two, who were identified as Adama Issah and Mamudu Salifu, were alleged to have stolen two fat bulls from a community in the Atwima District and attempted to transport them to Kumasi.
They are currently in police custody helping in investigations.
Also arrested was the driver of a Nissan Primera caravan, Maxwell Akakpo, who was using his vehicle to transport the booty from Daabaa in the Atwima District of the Ashanti Region, where the animals had been stolen, to Kumasi.
The police have impounded the Nissan Primera caravan, with registration number AS 4986 Z, pending further investigations into the case, but the driver of the vehicle has been granted bail and is assisting the police in their investigations.
The suspects, who were arrested around 4 a.m. on Friday, July 3, 2009, attempted to offer GH¢20 bribe to the police for their possible release but the police refused the offer.
Briefing The Mirror on the arrests, the Ashanti Regional MTTU Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abraham Bansah, said while the MTTU was on its routine motor checks on the Kumasi-Sunyani trunk road, it spotted the Nissan Primera caravan loaded with two fat bulls heading towards Kumasi.
He said after flagging the driver to stop, the police enquired about the owner of the bulls and why they were being transported without any document and at such an odd hour.
Supt Bansah said while being interrogated, Adama and Salifu, who claimed to be transporting the bulls to their owner in Kumasi for a ceremony, hurriedly offered GH¢20 to the police but they refused the offer and insisted on knowing the owner of the animals.
He said while the suspects were being interrogated, they quickly called someone on their cell phone who claimed to be the owner of the bulls, but when the MTTU personnel invited that person to appear before them in person, he failed to come.
That, he said, convinced the MTTU personnel that the suspects had stolen the bulls. Meanwhile, before the police could take any action, Adama and Salifu bolted, abandoning the bulls in the process.
He said the police, however, managed to arrest Akakpo and impounded the Nissan Primera, adding that during investigations, Adama and Salifu were later arrested at their hideout.
Supt Bansah said a radio announcement on the stolen bulls also received positive response because the owners of the stolen bulls, who identified themselves as Stephen Anachona and John Anachoba, went to the Kumasi Central Police Station to identify the animals as theirs.
He said the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service had already taken over the case and was conducting further investigations in order to arraign the suspects.