*Togbe Afede Asked To Stop Funeral*

The body of a genius of a wicked armed robber, George Kosi Buame Kleh of Ho-Bankoe, who was gunned down in Accra with a colleague Doku aka Mellow, a month ago, has finally been released to its family.

The Herald has gathered from a close family sources that the Kleh family without shame literarily bought the corpse of George for whooping GH¢1,000 from the police for its intended lavish funeral and burial at Ho-Bankoe in the Asogli State of the Volta Region.

George, according to The Herald’s information, was handed over to his senior brother Francis Kleh last week by the authorities of the Police Hospital Mortuary.

Francis Kleh had to drag himself from his sickbed to collect his junior brother’s corpse died of kidney complications shortly after handing over the dead body to the Volta Regional Hospital mortuary in Ho, popularly called Trafalga, for preservation.

The two brothers are currently in the morgue of the hospital awaiting a date for their lavish burial. But ahead of the lavish funeral and burial, some residence of Ho-Bankoe are asking the traditional authorities of Asogli State, led by the Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV, to stop the funeral as it doesn’t give any good account of the area to the rest of the country.

They cited the death of Benedicta Kleh, younger sister of George Kleh, who was a notorious swindler, in police custody. Her funeral and burial shook the foundations of Ho as armed robbers from all over the country descended on the capital of the Volta Region in an arrogant display of wealth to pay their last respect to a beloved sister in crime.

Family sources told The Herald that a big funeral is in the offing for George whose over 30 years armed robbery exploits have been of so much benefit to the family, hence the need to accord him his memory such respect.

It is unclear whether Togbe Afede would take up the challenge meeting the demand of his subject to stop a lavish funeral in his jurisdiction. When The Herald called him to seek some answers, he declined comment pitifully dwelling much on an old story published in The Herald sometime ago.

The Herald has gathered that most people in Ho are appalled at the prospect of a grand funeral being accorded a criminal like George whose record is a blot on the image of an otherwise descent and law-abiding people of Ho.

George’s disingenuous activities are said have taken him to a lot of West African Countries including Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leon where he is said to have committed highway robberies.

The Herald gathered, George, 54, in his youthful days was Agege Bus driver commuting between Ghana and Nigeria. Reports say George on his way to Nigeria could stop on the way rob his passengers of their money and abandon them.

George was friend to notorious robbers such as John Way, Sammy, Baby Nii, John Malm, Charles Coffie (CC), the late Mufu of Tema, Habib also of Tema Community One and Koku Ati aka Dracula of Adaklu. George is said to have engaged the service of a topnotch lawyer now a judge (name withheld) who also got him out of jail.

Three days before his death, George and a colleague had broken into a car at Tema at the car park of a popular hotel. They made away with the laptop and other valuables of one Mr. Agbenu, who had parked his car at the parking lot and gone into the hotel to see the manager for a business transaction.

Though there was a security man on post at the parking lot, George and his friend’s operation took place on his blind side.

According to Mr. Agbenu, who spoke to The Herald, he came out of the hotel to find out that the side glass of his car had been smashed and his car ransacked.

He went back to the hotel and reported the incident to the manager who quickly checked the CCTV camera installed to monitor activities in and around the hotel and there was George and his friend clearly captured carrying out their operation.

Mr. Agbenu said he took a copy of the recording and made a report to the police.

And when on the third day he heard that some armed robbers had been gunned down in a shoot out with police personnel from the regional police headquarters in Accra, he went to find out whether it could be Kleh for him to retrieve his laptop and other valuables.

Though it turned out that George was one of the armed robbers, Agbenu’s laptop was not one of the laptops found in Geroge’s vehicle.

George and Doku were killed near Nyaho Clinic in Accra by the police during their last operation. When the two, upon seeing the police closing in on them, they decided to exchange fire with the police officers who were equipped better than them.