One of the last places the police expect to find a suspect is in their own station, but in the case of Osman Mohammed, aka Ike, a suspected robber, he was picked up inside a police cell.
Osman is alleged to be one of the 15 suspected robbers who attacked a gold dealership at Bogosu and made away with GH¢900,000 on April 29, 2018, killing a policeman in the process.
A manhunt for the robbers on May 24, 2018, led to the death of two others, Kojo Amponsah and Nathaniel Abu Udomah, who resisted arrest and rather exchanged fire with the police.
Interestingly, Osman was part of the group that the police engaged in the shootout but he managed to escape.
After that incident, Osman vanished from the police radar, as his whereabouts became a mystery until he was found in a police cell where he was detained for allegedly causing harm in an unrelated case.
Arrest
The Director-General of the Police Intelligence Directorate (PID), Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Christian Tetteh Yohunu, told the Daily Graphic that Osman was picked up after intelligence showed that he (Osman) had been detained at the Odorkor Police Station.
“On September 20, 2018, at about 6 a.m., our intelligence network identified suspect, Osman Mohammed, aka Ike, in custody at the Odorkor Police Station, where he is being detained in a case of causing unlawful harm,” he said.
COP Yohunu explained that Osman had confessed to the crime.
Investigations, he said, was ongoing.
Bogoso robbery
On April 29, 2018, a gang of robbers attacked Plate and Plummes, a gold buying company, and stole over GH¢900,000 and a kilogramme of gold.
The robbers also shot dead a policeman on duty before bolting with their booty.
Following the robbery and murder, the PID coordinated pieces of information in Accra, Kumasi and the Western Region that led to the arrest of nine suspects, he said.
Those arrested included Frederick Mensah, commonly known as ‘Nana One’, who was alleged to be the leader of the gang, COP?Yohunu said.
‘Nana One’ was said to be leading the police to the location where the booty was hidden when he attempted to run away from the gun-wielding officers.
According to police sources, their only alternative was to gun him down and he was said to have died at the Tarkwa Government Hospital.
The police said ‘Nana One’ was one of the most self-confessing among all the suspects arrested and that he had provided the police with a lot of information as to how and where the robbery was planned, the people who took part in the planning and the roles assigned to each person.
The suspects, during interrogation, allegedly said they shared GH¢450,000 out of the money stolen during the attack but denied having a hand in the killing of Lance Corporal Nicholas Duku.
Planning the attack
The Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ms Olivia Ewuraabena Adiku, told the Daily Graphic that the robbery was planned in Accra, with collaborators at Bogoso.
She stated that the suspects further told the police that the money stolen from the refinery was hidden in the bush, but when they went for it later, they found only GH¢450,000, which they shared.
She said the arrested suspects claimed their accomplices, now at large, were responsible for the murder of the policeman.
Lance Cpl Duku managed to escape after the first gunshot hit him but the robbers followed up and finished him off in another barrage of bullets.