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General News of Monday, June 17, 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-06-17
SWAT team poses with suspected kidnappers of two Canadian volunteers
Details emerged on the manner in which three Nigerians and five suspected Ghanaians kidnapped two Canadian volunteers working in Kumasi in the Ashanti region on 4 June.
Six of the suspects – Sampson Aghalor Romeo, Elvis Ojiyorwe and Jeff Omarsar [who are all Nigerians] and Yussif Yakubu, Abdul Nasir, Seidu Abubakari – who were brought before the High Court on Friday, gave details of the operation.
The other two were not in court on Friday.
The suspects were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, namely an abduction, which is contrary to sections 23 (1) and 89 of the Criminal Offenses Act 1960 (Act 29).
On June 4, police announced that the suspects had agreed that, in the Ashanti regional capital, they would act together with the aim of illegally imprisoning Lauren Patricia Catherine Tilley and Bailey Jordan Chilly.
The prosecution told the court that in March of this year, Sampson Aghalor Romeo, who had been in Ghana for some time, met Yussif Yakubu and became friends.
During the friendship, Romeo spoke about the idea of an abduction that Yakubu agreed to help. Demonstrating his commitment, he helped Romeo get a gun.
As part of the execution of their plan, Romeo went to Nigeria to recruit Ojiyorwe and Omarsar to Ghana in May this year.
Once in Ghana, the two men stayed at Ashaiman in Accra for a few days before traveling to Kumasi to meet Romeo. In Kumasi, the four defendants discussed how they would execute their plan, said the court.
The financier, Romeo, gave Yakubu money to rent a vehicle, an apartment in the isolated area outside the city and two guns with ammunition.
On June 4, Yakubu contacted a car rental company in Aboabo, owned by Abdul Raman Sulemana, to rent a Toyota Corolla car for 400 ¢, the prosecutor said.
On the evening of the same day, the four suspects aboard the vehicle went in search of victims.
Lauren Patricia Catherine Tilley and Bailey Jordan Chilly, two Canadian nationals, were in Kumasi to participate in a youth program organized by Youth Challenge International.
The two men had taken the Uber taxi to get to their inn, Nhiayeso, behind the Vienna hotel. The accused approached them when they arrived at their destination and got off the taxi.
According to the police, the defendants badaulted the victims and forced them to board a vehicle while they were firing. The four accused then fled with the victims to their hiding place, which was in an unfinished building in Kenyasi Krobo, a suburb of Kumasi.
The two Canadians were detained in an unfinished building guarded by Ojiyorwe and Omarsar.
The operator of the operation, Romeo, contacted the families of the victims in Canada and began negotiating a ransom of $ 800,000.
In order to give the impression to their families that they were seriously tortured, the defendants shed blood on all the victims and on the floor of the building.
They then took pictures of the blood-soaked victims and pbaded them on to their families in Canada to force them to pay the ransom.
On June 11, a national security team led by Colonel Michael Opoku, acting on the intelligence base, arrested Yakubu before arresting others from hiding in Kenyasi-Krobo, said Charge in court.
Police said that during the rescue mission, Ojiyorwe and Omarsar threatened to kill the victims if the security agents challenged him. They exchanged fire with the security guards until they were under control and arrested.
Abdul Nasir and Seidu Abubakari were subsequently arrested after being mentioned by the defendants as having taken part in the victims' abduction plan.
The investigations are still in progress.
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