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The Wenchi Magistrate Court in the Bono Region has remanded a civilian employee of the Ghana Police Service, into police custody for allegedly stealing an AK 47 rifle and a SMG Magazine loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition.
The suspect, Joseph Adinkra, a-28-year-old cleaner at the Wenchi Police Station, would re-appear before the court presided by Issa Abdul Wahab on Tuesday January 21, 2025.
Detective Inspector John Agyare, the police prosecutor, told the court that the complainant, Chief Inspector Seth Agyei is a station officer at the Wenchi police station, while the suspect is a cleaner at the station and lives at Akrobi, a suburb of Wenchi.
He told the court that on January 03, 2025, around 0520 hours one of the police officers of the station used the AK-47 rifle with registration number AE 405323 for night patrol duties.
When the police officer closed from the night duties, he returned the AK 47 rifle to the charge office and made entries, Detective Agyare stated, explaining that the police officer on duty at the charge office at that time kept it together with other weapons at the counter.
He said shortly after the weapons were kept at the counter, the suspect also arrived at the charge office to start his routine cleaning work, adding that the officer at the counter stepped out of the charge office to enable the suspect to clean the place.
Detective Agyare said the suspect then capitalised on the officer’s brief absence, allegedly stole the service rifle together with the SMG Magazine valued at GHC52, 834.99, concealed them in his cloth and left the charge office.
The suspect subsequently found an old brownish bag inside a tricycle’s bucket at the station, hid the weapons in the bag and returned to the charge office to complete his work.
Detective Agyare explained that at about 0540 hours, the station’s Armourer came to the charge office to put all the returned rifles inside the Armoury, but he realised that one of the rifles and the SMG Magazine were missing.
The complainant made an official complaint at the Police Station, he stated and the course of investigations the suspect was arrested.
During interrogations, the suspect initially denied the theft but later admitted the offence and led the investigators to retrieve the weapons from where he hid it, Detective Agyare told the court. He added that the suspect claimed that his friend, an illegal miner asked him for the weapons, promising to pay him (suspect) GHC7, 000.
Source: GNA
