Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Two remanded for carrying illegal fire arms

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Two persons, Kofi Yeboah alias Lepetin and Shadrack Yeboah aka Obeng, have been remanded in prison custody to reappear on February 25, 2020, for carrying firearms and ammunition without lawful permit.

The court presided over by His Worship Fred Obikyere detained them on what they were guilty of.

The prosecutor, Inspector E.T. Addo told the court that as part of their attempts to clamp down on criminals, police personnel including army officers, officials of Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and Dormaa East District Executive embarked on an exercise to flush out armed criminals in the Dormaa District on February 6, 2020, in Bono Region.

Inspector E.T. Addo is said to be the complainant on duty on the said day of operation within the Dormaa Ahenkro division.

According to him, during the operation, Kofi Yeboah and Shadrack Yeboah were both arrested at Akotex, a suburb of Wianfe. They were sent to their individual houses and searches were conducted in their rooms. He said although Kofi Yeboah was a drinking bar operator, the search in his room revealed a Returning Falcon 9MM gun with butt number 14012380 and 40 rounds of ammunition without authorisation.

When Shadrack’s room was searched, a locally manufactured short gun with butt number WPD 140-96 and three rounds of ammunition including AA life cartridges were found. They were arrested and sent to Bono Regional Police CID room for further investigation.

During interrogation, they admitted in their caution statement that the firearms belonged to them individually. They were charged with possession of firearms without lawful permit contrary to section 192 of criminal and other offences act, Act 29/60

He said investigations revealed that Kofi Yeboah in 2008 travelled to Libya and returned in 2018 with an unregistered pistol and hid it in his house. They were remanded in prison custody to allow for further investigations.

The case, therefore, was postponed to February 25, 2020.