DAILY GRAPHIC, Tuesday, September 18, 2012, Pg.49. 3 Arrested for diverting goods

Story: Mary Ankrah

THREE suspected thieves have been arrested for diverting a 40-footer container of used items from the Tema Port to a warehouse at Gbawe in Accra.

The suspects: Iddrisu Dauda, 27 (left); Hamaza Yahubu, 26 (middle),

and Seth Kwarteng, 45(right)

The suspects are Iddrisu Dauda, 27; Hamaza Yahubu, 26, and Seth Kwarteng, 45.

Two other suspects, Musah Mustapha, the driver in charge of a DAF 95 articulated truck, with registration number AS 3441 Z, who was engaged to cart the goods, and one Abu, who took the goods to a warehouse at Gbawe, are on the run.

Briefing the press in Accra, the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbilla, said based on police intelligence, the three suspects were arrested last Thursday, at about 4:00 p.m.

He said the complainant, who is a businessman, on September 3, 2012, at 6:00 a.m., cleared a 40-footer container stuffed with assorted items including used clothing, shoes, bags, toys and belts from the Tema Ports through his agent, who engaged the services of Mustapha to cart the goods to Kantamanto in Accra but he ended up diverting the goods to an unknown destination.

According to him, based on police intelligence, on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, some of the goods were located at the store of one of the suspected thieves, Kwarteng, who also deals in used clothing at Kantamanto.

He said although Kwarteng denied the theft of the goods when questioned by the police, he mentioned Abu as the person who brought the goods to his store for sale.

He said further investigations also revealed that Kwarteng and Abu took the goods to a warehouse at Gbawe CP Last Stop at house number 110.

Some of the bales found at the warehouse at Gbawe

Upon inspection at the warehouse, he said the police detected a lot of bales of used clothing with tags ‘Akomapa’ and assorted used clothing yet to be baled.

DCOP Timbilla advised the general public especially businesspeople to always inspect the vehicles they contract to cart their goods at the port especially their particulars, since some of them had been detected to be fake.

He also appealed to the public to always be willing to give out information in that regard, adding that  the police would step up their intelligence in that direction.