How a police chief superintendent won hearts for intercepting major cocoa smuggling operation

Residents of Mamprobi, in Accra, and its environs, are singing the praises of their police commander, Chief Superintendent Alfred Kudah, for what they say is his bravery and result-oriented-ness in ensuring that a cocoa smuggling operation was foiled on Independence Day.

According to some residents of Mamprobi, who have spoken exclusively to GhanaWeb, the police officer’s bravery on the night of Monday, March 6, 2023 – when Ghana was celebrating its 66th Independence Day, led to the interception of some smugglers in their jurisdiction.

Describing how events unfolded, one of the residents, who gave his name as Oswald, said that on the night of March 6, Chief Supt Kudah led an intelligence operation to the Laterbiokorshie Cluster of Schools, a truckload of over 600 bags of cocoa beans were seized.

He added that the cocoa beans were originally for the Ghana Cocoa Board.

“While Ghanaians were engaged in several legally sanctioned activities to commemorate Ghana's 66th birthday after colonial rule, some nation wreckers decided to take advantage of the celebrant mood of everyone to a engage in illegal operation to the detriment of our country’s economy.

“These enemies of the state, thus, chose the Laterbiokorshie cluster of schools as a conducive site to re-bag truckloads of over 600 bags of cocoa beans from Ghana COCOBOD sacks into fertilizer sacks earmarked to be smuggled out into neighboring Togo,” he told GhanaWeb.

Another resident explained that the police were able to timeously intercept the illegal activity after they received a tip-off on what was going on.

Upon reaching the school, the police are said to have arrested some three persons and impounded the truck.

The cocoa beans, he added, have also since been handed over to the Ghana COCOBOD.

“Based on a tip off born out of a well laid down intelligence in the district, the Commander of the Mamprobi Police, Chief Superintendent Alfred Kudah, led an able team under his control to the site and successfully, arrested 3 people involved in the unlawful act, impounded the truck used for the operation, and then handed the cocoa beans over to Ghana COCOBOD for preservation,” he explained.

Further details from the police show that on March 9, 2023, the detective in charge of the case, Chief Inspector Baba Naporo Issifu, arraigned the accused persons before the Accra Circuit Court 6, where they were granted bail, pending trial.

Meanwhile, there are other accomplices on the run and the police has vowed to arrest them so they can also be put before the court.

The residents of Mamprobi have since been praising the professionalism and hard work of Chief Supt Alfred Kudah because, as they say, with his leadership, the Mamprobi Police District has “proven to be among the leading police districts in the country to be relied on in terms of crime combat.”

They also recalled instances such as the recent arrest and prosecution of some notorious landguards within the area, the arrest and prosecution of some armed robbers, the arrest and prosecution of narcotic drug peddlers, among others.

For these residents, the Mamprobi area has not been known for such feats in a very long time and it is worth celebrating their police commander for the yeoman’s job he has been doing lately.


Some of the cocoa beans as they were intercepted

See videos of when the cocoa beans were intercepted at the Laterbiokorshie Cluster of Schools:





You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV here:



AE/