Ashaiman: Court remands 6 suspects over slain soldier

The six persons arrested in connection with the murder of a solider, Imoro Sheriff at Taifa, a suburb of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region have been remanded into police custody for further investigations.

The suspects, Samuel Tetteh alias Wiper, Abubakar Sadick alias Birdman, the key accused persons were charged with two counts namely conspiracy to commit crime to wit attempted robbery and robbery.

The other four accused persons, Safianu Musah alias Dayorgu, Ibrahim Abdul Rakib, Yussif Mohammed and Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim were charged with dishonestly receiving stolen item.

All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them when they appeared before the Ashaiman Circuit Court presided over by Simon J. Gaga on Monday March 13, 2023.

Abdul Fatau Alhassan, counsel for the last four accused persons who were charged for dishonestly receiving stolen item, pleaded for bail for them.

According to him, Mohammed was wrongly picked up because Ibrahim mentioned the name of the person he bought the phone from as Mohammed.

He stated that his clients are ignorant and know nothing of the robbery that took place which led to the death of the soldier since they only got interested in a phone which was being sold by someone.

However, prosecution led by Superintendent Sylvester Asare opposed the bail application by defence counsel.

According to him, the accused persons though they were found within the Ashaiman Municipality, they have no permanent place of abode as their current places of abode which he described as ghettos cannot met the test of permanent place.

He appealed to the court to consider the nature of the offence, the severity of the offence and the punishment the accused persons are likely to suffer if found guilty and remand them since when they are released on bail they may not appear to stand trial.

The prosecutor strongly believes that admitting the accused persons to bail before trial may amount to acquittal before trial.

After listening to the excellence submissions of prosecution and counsel for the accused persons, the court remanded all the accused persons to reappear on March 27, 2023 because the counsel for the accused failed to demonstrate to the court the permanent place of abode of the accused persons.

Fact of the case as presented by the prosecutor stated that on March 4, 2023, police said it received information to the effect that a male adult had been found lying dead at Ashiaman Taifa in the Greater Accra Region.

Without much time, a team of Police Detectives were detailed to the said location where they confirmed the incident and immediately commenced investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the deceased.

The officers cordoned off the scene of crime and called in the Police Crime Scene team to process the scene for forensic analysis.

At the scene, the Crime Scene Team retrieved a number of items including a knife with blood stains on it and a back pack. In the back pack, Police found 1 Samsung tablet, 1 Apple laptop, 1 military uniform with the name tag “Imoro”, 8 other clothes, as well as a Ghana card and a Health Insurance card bearing the name Imoro Sherrif.

Suspecting the victim could be a military officer and, in line with Police standard operating procedure for handling institution-based victims, the Military was accordingly notified of the incident and some military officers came to identify the deceased to Police as Imoro Sheriff, a soldier,” police said in a statement released Sunday March 12, 2023.

It continued that the body of the deceased was thereafter conveyed to a hospital for preservation and autopsy.

As part of the investigation, an intelligence operation was immediately launched within Ashiaman and other strategic locations of interest to follow up on all relevant leads on the case.

The police said investigations further revealed that on March 3, 2023 the deceased visited a female friend at Ashaiman Newtown at about 10:30pm and left the place the following day, March 4, at about 01:30am and it was upon his return when he was attacked by the assailants.

On March 9, the police arrested suspects Safianu Musah alias Dayorgu and Ibrahim Abdul Rakib at their hideouts in Ashaiman.

Two other suspects, Samuel Tetteh alias Wiper and Abubakar Sadick alias Birdman were also arrested at their hideouts on March 10, 2023.

On March 11, two additional suspects, Yussif Mohammed and Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim were also arrested.

Per the police investigation, Samuel Tetteh and Abubakar Sadick at about 1:45am on March 4, 2022 attacked the deceased at Taifa Ashiaman in an attempt to rob him of his phone and the backpack.

The deceased however resisted and struggled with the suspects. During the struggle, suspect Samuel Tetteh overpowered the accused persons by pulling out a knife and stabbed the deceased in the arm, snatched his phone, and bolted with the phone leaving the deceased with the knife stuck in his arm.

According to the police, it investigation also revealed that suspects Samuel Tetteh and Abubakar Sadick sold the iPhone which they had robbed from the deceased to suspect Ibrahim Abdul Rakib at a cost of GHC300.

Ibrahim later sold it to suspect Safianu Musah for GHC350.

Suspect Safianu Musah is being evasive as to the whereabouts of the phone as he further sold to one Yussif Mohammed at GHC500 and later to another person, Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim at the same cost. Both accused persons were quickly arrested.