Cop’s murder: The inside story

Details are emerging from last Sunday dawn attack on policemen at the Kwabenya Police Station by six armed men which led to the killing of a police officer and the freeing of seven suspects who were in custody.

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the slain officer, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi, was marched from his car to the police station before he was shot at close range.

Police sources have indicated that Inspector Ashilevi, officer in-charge of Atomic Hill police station, who was the monitoring officer for the district that night, was shot in the buttocks by three suspected armed robbers who were hiding near the police station.

DAILY GUIDE has gathered that at about 1:30 am, a man suspected to be a Nigerian, came to the station and approached the Counter non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) that he wanted to lodge a complaint.

Suddenly, he left with an excuse that he was going to fetch something from his car.

Unknown to the police, the other accomplices had parked their motorbikes and vehicle at the Kwabenya roundabout area and were walking to the station.

Later, when the others arrived, three of them marched to the charge office together with the man who had earlier come to the station, to attack the counter NCO while the other three, fully armed, waited outside to ward off any intruder from entering.

Inspector Ashilevi had then arrived and called the patrol team to come over to pick him to check on the men stationed at the various flash points.

Upon hearing the shouts coming from the charge office, Inspector Ashilevi, wearing a police pair of trousers and plain cloth, got down from the car and attempted to move to the charge office to save the situation.

The three other armed robbers immediately spotted him and marched him towards one of the offices.

While moving, one of them shot the inspector in the buttocks amidst sporadic shootings.

The armed robbers inside had then collected the keys to the cells and freed the inmates who were about 14 suspects.

Seven took advantage to escape but the others refused to break jail.

The escapees have been identified as Dickson Ofori, 24, who was on remand for robbery; Chibuzor Akwabu, 34, a Nigerian, also on remand for robbery; Edem Rockson, 32, on remand for stealing; Emmanuel Kotey, 21; Prince Osei, 27, arrested together with Kofi Darko, 21, for possession of fire arms without lawful authority and Atta Kwadwo, 20, arrested for robbery.

Inspector Ashilevi was rushed to the Police Hospital but was referred to the 37 Military Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

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The Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP George Alex Mensah, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, confirmed that there were a total of seven men on duty that very night.

“We had the Counter non-Commissioned Officer at the charge office, a station orderly, two MTTD personnel, an armed guard on duty, an inspector officially on duty with the responsibility to monitor activities for the night and CID personnel on duty,” he averred.

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DCOP Mensah confirmed that the hoodlums actually parked their motorbikes at the Kwabenya Roundabout and walked to the station.

DCOP Mensah confirmed that even though the counter NCO was friendly to the first person who claimed that he wanted to lodge a complaint, the action came as a surprise to the men on duty.

He therefore urged his men not to give up but do their best to protect lives and property.

He said, “The incident that occurred is very unfortunate and sad but not unusual since our duty is to fight crime; we shall continue to do so even at the peril of our lives.”

However, he confirmed that 59 persons had been detained following last Sunday’s swoop.

“A total of 78 persons were arrested in the swoops that were conducted at places, including Kwabenya, Dome, Agbogbloshie, Madina cemetery and Kwame Nkrumah Circle; and 19, including two females, were granted bail but the others were found in possession of narcotics and would be prosecuted.

Modernisation Of Police Stations

The regional commander hinted that the police administration, led by IGP David Asante-Apeatu, has plans to modernise all police stations in the country in terms of infrastructure and productivity.

“Plans are underway for stations to have CCTV cameras while other activities will also be digitised, but since this is capital intensive, individuals and cooperate organisations could come in to assist.”

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