Joint Ghana-Togolese Police arrests 33 suspected criminals
A joint operation by Ghanaian Police and Togolese Gendarme, early Sunday morning, on suspected criminal hideouts along the Ghana-Togo frontier at Aflao, has led to the arrest of 33 suspects, including three women.
Mr Ahmed Issah Yakubu, Superintendent of Police, in charge of the Aflao District told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, three of the suspects had been identified as being on the wanted list of the Togolese authorities.
They are Abdul-Aziz Abubakar Maiga, 29, Nigerien, Noel Seshie 28 and Kwame Kumado, 24, both Togolese.
Mr Yakubu said the three had been whisked into custody in Togo whilst the others are in Police cells in Ghana awaiting interrogations.
He said a suspect, known only as Yaovi, died from bullet wounds when he was forcing himself through a cordon of Togolese Gendarmes into Togo whilst another was hit in the arm.
Mr Yakubu said the body of the killed suspect, a Togolese, and the injured also a Togolese, both said to be accomplices of Maiga, Seshie and Kumado, had been taken to Lome.
He said the Ghanaian Police contingent was drawn from Aflao, Keta Division, and the Volta Regional Police Headquarters in Ho.
Mr Yakubu said the centre of the police operation included Fiokope, Zorokpome and Atisukope, all shanty communities along the border and the beaches.
He said the police combed and destroyed makeshift dwellings at Atisukope beach, opposite the GPRTU Cargo terminal, seizing pairs of scissors, cutlasses, pliers, metal cutters, vehicle tyre rims and tyres of various sizes, a motorbike, bicycles, screw drivers, pumping machines and dry leaves, suspected to be Indian Hemp.
Mr Yakubu said at a house opposite the Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division barracks at Zorokpome, police seized several vehicle and motorbike parts and about 100 goats and sheep, many of which had been identified by their owners, some said to be tethered towards the Moslem end of fasting feast.
He said one Ezu Volo, the owner of the house is on the run.
Mr Yakubu said intelligence snippets indicate that three others, two of whom are Nigerians, who were suspected to have gone on a robbery spree with a PK 49 French rifle, stolen from Lome, managed to escape the net.
Mr Yakubu said the operation was planned by the Ghanaian and Togolese security to stem incidents of cross-border crimes, which was becoming more complex.
Source: GNA