POLICE personnel in Tamale last Thursday foiled a planned armed robbery expedition in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region where the suspect had targeted banks, filling stations and affluent residents.
However, the suspect’s “recruits” that included some police personnel in Tamale who feigned interest in the operation later led his arrest, thus foiling the operation.
The suspect, Richmond Kankam, alias Kofi Mensah 27, is currently facing trial at the Tamale Circuit Court where he has been remanded in prison custody to reappear on June 2, this month.
Narrating the incident to the media in Tamale, the Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh, said the suspect was a former employee of the Prudential Bank at the Odum branch in Kumasi.
He said on May 19, the suspect arrived in Tamale to lodge at a Guest house at Gumani, a suburb. On his way to the guest house, Kankam met one Yaw Agbemavor, a former employee of the guest house who assisted him to check in.
The suspect later informed Agbemavor to assist him recruit some strong and brave men in Tamale to help him (the suspect) carry out an operation.
According to the PRO, Yaw informed his brother who later told his friend, a police corporal. The latter also informed his superior officer who advised him to feign interest in the exercise.
When Corporal Prince Ampima went to Kankam, he asked the former to recruit more men. The policeman then invited another colleague and two other civilians.
They were later taken through some training by the suspect including tactical exercises for the robbery. They were taught terminologies such as “wound” and “vanish” meaning kill and bury to erase trace. The robbery was to have taken place in Kumasi at 2 a.m. on June 21.
On the morning of May 20, the suspect including his “recruits” set off to the STC yard enroute to Kumasi where they were to receive their weapons for the operation.
On their way, however, Corporal Ampima directed the cab driver they chartered to the Sakasaka Police Station where the suspect was arrested and placed in custody.
Upon interrogation, the suspect admitted undertaking the training exercise but insisted that it was only a joke.
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