Firecrackers were used in attacks on Kuntor- CID

Preliminary investigations by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police into the alleged armed attack on Warrant Officer Patrick Kuntor's residence has revealed that there was no evidence of exchange of fire at the residence.

"There is no evidence from a thorough forensic examination of the scene, of any lethal weapon having been carried or fired by the attackers. The lethal shots were from W O Kuntor's pistol."

Mr. David Asante-Apeatu, Officer in-charge of CID operations, made these disclosures on Saturday at a Press briefing in Accra to throw light on the state of investigations so far, into the attack, which, has been described in some quarters as an assassination attempt on the former Aide-de-Camp of former President J.J Rawlings.

He said the evidence indicates that the "attackers" were carrying only firecrackers of which pictures of leftovers collected from the scene were shown to the press. He said the sound of firecrackers with the glow, which accompanied it, tallied exactly with what Mr. Kuntor saw and heard.

Mr. Asante-Apeatu, who is a Chief Superintendent of Police, said ballistic examination conducted also revealed the four 9- millimetre empty shells fired from a 9-millimetre Tarsus pistol with registration number AAAH/5454/2001 and barrel number B41979 found at the scene was done by Mr. Kuntor.

"At the scene, four bullet holes were identified; one in the ceiling of the bedroom of WO. Kuntor and three holes in the main gate in the house."

He said, "apart from these marks of bullet holes, no other marks were observed in the house. The walls of the porch of the house, where according to WO Kuntor, he stood and exchanged fire with the alleged robbers for almost 20 minutes was intact. No bullets or pellets were found in the porch or the compound."

He said WO Kuntor also failed to surrender to the investigators the gun he used to fire the shots and rather presented a different one, which was found out during forensic examination.

WO Kuntor rather presented to the police a gun that has the same calibre, a 9-millimetre Browning with registration number AAH5453/2001 in addition to two other guns he possessed.

He later surrendered the actual gun used for the action. On the number of attackers, the operation officer said while the watchman of WO Kuntor and another eyewitness saw four, another eyewitness said he saw about seven people running from the house.

The Watchman Ebenezer Yaw Nkrumah also said he saw one of the robbers dressed in a black hat, a black pair of trousers and a black shirt and that he did not struggle with anyone as alleged by WO Kuntor.

Mr. Asante-Apeatu said nothing was stolen from the house and the only damage was to the ceiling and the main gate of the building.

On WO Kuntor's claim that he shot two of the attackers, the Operations Officer, said there was no evidence of blood spill associated with gunshots at the scene. He said the police are continuing with the investigations.