STEALING AT POLICE BARRACKS (GRAPHIC NSEMPA, PAGE 3)

By Collins Agyekum Gyasi, Kumasi.

EVEN in the midst of the scores of men and women of the police at the Dichemso Police Barracks in Kumasi, some young men had the courage to go to the barracks to steal.
Luck, however, run out for them when they were arrested but this was after one of them had inflicted cutlass wounds on the policeman who arrested him.
A Kumasi Circuit Court has sentenced one of them, Nicholas Ayirensah. 20, to 15 years jail term for organising and taking part in the stealing of some items from the barracks.
He pleaded guilty to the charges of unlawful entry, stealing and causing unlawful harm preferred against him when he appeared before the court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Amoh Yartey.
His two accomplices, Victor Awonbigo Aramba, who claimed to be a student of Ghana National Academy, Kumasi, and Ibrahim Awudu, a 19-year-old petty trader, were however remanded into prison custody.
The two pleaded not guilty to the charges of unlawful entry and conspiracy to steal when they appeared before the court.
Presenting the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Archibald Kwasi Fandoh, said on February 10, this year, the convict and his accomplices went to the Dichemso Police barracks around 1.20 a.m. by scaling over a wall at the compound of the barracks.
He said they were carrying a sharp dagger, a pair of scissors, pliers and four mobile phone chargers as well as an unserviceable mobile phone when they entered the barracks.
Chief Inspector Yartey said on entering the police barracks, they expertly used the knife and scissors to open one of the rooms to steal
In the process, the complainant in the case, District Sergeant Major [DSM] Francis Yirenkyi, spotted them and enquired of what they were doing.
On hearing the voice of the DSM, the three took to their heels but the complainant succeeded in arresting Nicholas who attempted to scale over the fence wall.
In the process of arresting Nicholas Ayirensah, he pulled out the knife and slashed the forehead of the complainant, his left arm and back.
The prosecutor said some concerned neighbours and policemen who arrived there assisted in arresting the convict and sent him to the police station.
During police investigations, Nicholas confessed that they went there to steal and mentioned Aramba and Awudu as his accomplices, and led police to arrest them in different houses at Moshie Zongo.