I’m responsible for 5 cases - Robbery suspect tells police

Source: Daily Graphic Ghana -  More victims have identified Bernard Kofi Owusu Acheampong as the suspect who robbed and raped them in the Dansoman area. Though the Dansoman Police have recorded 10 cases in which the victims were robbed and raped, Acheampong has admitted that he was responsible for five of them.

Yet during an identification parade in Accra where Acheampong was lined up among other suspects, six victims pointed him out as the man who had attacked them.
Before the parade, a couple had identified Acheampong as the suspect who had attacked them.

Same tales

The victims claimed the suspect covered his face with a mask when he attacked them but some were able to make him out.

In their statements to the police, all the victims corroborated that the suspect used a similar modus operandi.

They had told the police in their statements that the robber held them hostage with a machete, and claimed that he had been contracted to kill them but would spare their lives out of sympathy.

In some cases, the suspect posed as a fumigation expert who went round residences of wealthy personalities.

In their investigations the police found out that unknown to the people who hired the services of Acheampong to fumigate their houses, he used the opportunity to survey the house and identified a point for his illegal entry later.

Additionally, the police found that most of the victims were either married women or single mothers.

The arrest

Briefing journalists, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said Acheampong, 28, who claimed to be unemployed and a resident of Bubiashie, was arrested on February 19, 2015 after attacking a couple at Dansoman.

He said “at about 1 a.m., Acheampong, armed with a knife, attacked the couple, robbed them and raped the woman.”

He is said to have made away with the mobile phones, HP laptop, apple Ipad, Samsung tablet, and IPhone belonging to the couple, in addition to GH¢1, 000 cash, all of which he carried in a pillow cover he had picked in the house Mr Yohuno said the suspect was later arrested at his hideout at Adakope in Dansoman through police intelligence and investigations.

“All the items were retrieved and during interrogation, he confessed to the crime and other robberies he had committed at Dansoman,” said Mr Yohuno. The police have since concluded their investigations and will, therefore, put Acheampong before court.