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General News of Saturday, 10 July 2010

Source: Dailypost

INTERPOL Top Guns Chop US$49,000 Ransom

--pocket a further US$9,000 to release kidnapper's accomplices



The job of IGP Paul Tawiah Quaye, to lead a clean and disciplined Police Service

in the country has been cut out for him after startling revelations that the

heads of INTERPOL- Ghana, Amponsah Asiamah and his Deputy, Peter Abila have

danced with the devil by withdrawing the remaining US$49,000 ransom in the

Barclays Bank account of Nigerian kidnapper, Emmanuel Emeka Nwangu “M’.

Even more disturbing is the allegation that the two collected US$9,000 from the

kidnapper through a friend called Desmond and as a result released two of his

accomplices who had been arrested after attempting to cash a cheque of GH¢10,000

from Nwangu’s account.

After their arrest, the two, Seth Danso and Dennis told the police that they did

not know Nwangu. In what is obviously a cock and bull story, they claimed they

met the kidnapper by chance at the Tema end of the Accra-Tema Motorway where he

gave them the cheque to cash for him.

The two tried to cash the cheque at the Dome Pillar 2 branch of Barclays bank in

Accra oblivious of the fact that a circular had been sent to all the branches of

the bank instructing that whoever tries to cash money from the account should be

arrested.

After the two were taken to the CID police headquarters, they were allegedly

released after the said Desmond, who was at the Penta Hotel in Osu, Accra phoned

the INTERPOL chiefs on behalf of the kidnapper and sent US$9,000 to them.



In yesterday’s issue, the Daily Post revealed how Mr. Asiamah, ordered that an

amount of US$49,000 being the remainder of the US$100,000 ransom paid to Nwangu

by the Nigerian businessman whose child was kidnapped be cashed. This was done

and shared by the INTERPOL-Ghana bosses.

But, when contacted, Mr. Asiamah denied that the money had been shared,

insisting that the money was being held by his unit as exhibit. This is in

spite of the fact that his deputy had told the bosses of the Police Intelligence

& Professional Standards (PIPS) unit of the Ghana Police Service two different

stories of the whereabouts of the money.

According to deep throat sources at PIPS, Peter Abila initially told PIPS bosses

who interrogated him that the money had been lodged in the account of the Police

Fund but when asked to produce the receipt, changed his story and claimed that

the money had been handed over to DCOP Frank Adu-Poku, Former Director-General

of Police CID.



The IGP, who is said to be choking with anger over the matter has directed DCOP

Adu-Poku to come clean with the whereabouts of the money.



Meanwhile, Daily Post’s intelligence say some of the police personnel who

partook in the sharing of the money dashed to court yesterday to prepare dockets

for Seth Danso and Dennis, the two who were arrested for attempting to cash the

GH¢10,000 to create the impression that the two had been processed for court and

granted them bail.

It would be recalled that Emmanuel Emeka Nwangu, a native of Nsukka Local

Government Area of Enugu State, described as a dangerous criminal by the

Nigerian police together with his Ghanaian wife, Patricia Demordzi Agbo,

kidnapped the child of a Nigerian businessman they had worked for for six

months.

They brought the child to Ghana on the 13th of March 2010 and then called the

child’s father to demand ransom of US$100,000.

The amount was paid into Patricia’s Ecobank account number 0373014423510701 the

very next day, i.e. 14th March, 2010. The couple quickly withdrew part of the

money from the Haatso branch of the bank and deposited it in the Barclays Bank

account of Nwangu. Then they began cashing it steadily using his ATM card. After

the police realized what was happening, with $49,000 left in the account, they

wrote to the bank to freeze the account.

Meanwhile, after receiving the money, the couple called their victim’s father

and told him where they had left her. The father came from Nigeria to pick his

child in a hotel near Jubail Clinic in Sakumono, Tema.



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