I Extorted Money From Victim & Locked Him Up - Police Confesses

The perception of many Ghanaians that the police sometimes frame up their victims in order to throw them into cells or even shoot them dead for no crime committed, has been given some amount of credence, as five police patrol team are currently under investigation for ‘robbing’ from a truck driver.

They had accused their victim of smelling of Indian hemp and, therefore, arrested and detained him. They also threatened to imprison him if he did not pay GH¢ 1000 (One thousand Ghana Cedis).

The five police personnel under investigation have all denied the allegations in their statement at the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS), but one of them later openly confessed to the crime, when the complainant invoked the dreaded Antoah deity to take charge of the case.

Narrating the incident to The Chronicle, Michael Mensah, a truck driver of one of the pharmaceutical companies in the country, said between 9.30pm and 10pm on 17th January, 2014, he had gone to park the company vehicle, loaded with company goods, at a nearby filling station, and was returning home with his mate, when some policemen in a patrol vehicle approached them at Sowutuom, a suburb of Accra, and accused them of reeking of Indian hemp.

He narrated that he was shocked by the allegation made by the police, because he was only holding an orange he had just bought a couple of minutes earlier. When nothing was found on them after a search, one of the police men scratched the ground and picked something up, which he claimed was the Indian hemp he was allegedly smoking.

After he had explained to the police that he had parked his truck at a nearby filling station and that he was going home to rest and return at dawn to pick the truck to deliver goods, they handcuffed him and his mate. The police then took them to the truck, searched it but found nothing, except an amount of GH¢ 470 in an envelope, which was meant for fueling the truck.

He said the police, after setting eyes on the money, demanded GH¢ 1000 (thousand Ghana Cedis) from him, amid threat that they could make him lose his job by detaining him in police cells. True to their words, he and his colleague were handed over to the Sowutuom police by the patrol team, without any statements taken from them.

He said the patrol team returned two hours later and after sensing that his life was in danger and the glaring possibility that he could be framed up, pleaded with the police to beat down the ‘bribe’ they were demanding.

Both parties settled on GH¢ 300 which he readily gave to them, out of the GH¢ 470. “They threatened they would frame me up and imprison me, so I decided to pay. My intention was to get out of the cells, deliver the goods for my company and return to take my money back,” he told The Chronicle.

After he had parted with the amount they settled on, one of the policemen took an additional GH¢ 10 (Ten Ghana Cedis) for call credit. He said after they were released, he went for a loan from a friend to fuel the truck to be able to deliver the goods.

THE DRAMA

On returning from his journey, Michael bought a bunch of bananas for the sole purpose of invoking the dreaded Antoah Deity on the police personnel, should they refuse to refund his money. According to him, he would hang the bananas and each time a finger of banana drops from the bunch, each of the policemen will die one after the other.

“So on Sunday when I returned, I went to the Sowutuom police station and demanded my money from the officer who was at the counter when the patrol team brought me. Initially, he pretended as though he did not know anything about the case, until I showed him the bananas I was going to use to curse them.”

Upon sensing the seriousness of the case, the policeman, whose name he gave only as Ransford, pleaded with him to exercise patience since the patrol team gave him only GH¢ 50.

Michael said Ransford later called to inform him that he had returned his share of the booty to the patrol team and that he had given them his (Michael’s) cell phone number, with the hope that they would call him and return all the money.

After three weeks, when he did not hear from the patrol team, Michael then proceeded to the PIPS to lodge a formal complaint about the conduct of the police.

But when the patrol team members were summoned by PIPS, they denied ever taking any such amount from Michael, nor did they handcuff and detain him anywhere.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

Sensing that he might not get justice in the case due to the “blatant lies” the police were spewing at the PIPS, Michael travelled to the Antoah deity in the Ashante Region for redress, which he later informed the policemen involved.

Sensing that the issue would not be easily compromised as regards to where the matter was heading, one of the accused policemen travelled to the Antoah deity to overturn the curse, but was asked to bring the one (Michael) who invoked it, before anything could be done.

The policeman called Michael to meet him at the shrine, where he confessed of indeed taking the money.

“Truth must be told, I told Nana [the Antoa Priest] that we took the money, if I say we did not take the money then I will be telling a lie,” the policeman said in a recorded conversation with Michael, while impressing on him to come to the Antoa shrine to help overturn the curse.

Michael said, on reaching the shrine, he told the Priest that he would only overturn the curse if only the policeman was ready to confess same at the PIPS.

Findings

Investigations conducted by The Chronicle indicate that contrary to statements by the embattled policemen, Michael was indeed handcuffed and detained at the Sowutuom Police station.

Investigations also revealed that Michael and his colleague were held unlawfully at the police station, without any charges nor was any entry made in the books of the station about their arrest and detention.

The Chronicle can also report on authority that there are desperate attempts by the policemen involved in the case to persuade Michael to withdraw the case against them, but he says he now fears for his life, should he withdraw the case on the basis that one of the policemen had threatened to “deal with him” after the case had been disposed off.

“From the look of things, these police can kill me and place guns and machete by my side and say I am an armed robber,” he said.

Reliable information gathered by The Chronicle indicates that PIPS are in the process of submitting a report on their findings to the Inspector General of Police.