Three suspects believed to be behind the theft of power generating sets at Spintex and Baastona in Accra have been arrested by the police.
The police gave the names of the suspects as Bright Kwaku Emma, 24, a factory hand believed to be a notorious generating set thief and mastermind of the syndicate, Fuseini Alhassan, 32, a scrap dealer, and Abdul Raman Salifu Yahaya, 36, also a scrap dealer.
They are said to use a truck fitted with a crane to steal from generating set dealer shops on the pretext of being hired by the owners of the shops to fix the generators, which they claimed had minor faults.
More cases
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Baatsona Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr Baba Adamu, said the command had received a number of complaints from owners of generating set shops on the Spintex Road of some unidentified men using the same methodology to steal from their shops in their absence.
He said based on the reports, the police set out to look for the perpetrators.
“Then at about 8 a.m. on July, 27, 2015 the manager of Sulas Enterprise, a dealer in generating sets, reported to the police that some men had used the same modus operandi to steal two generating sets, a 20 KVA and a 10 KVA Kipor from the premises of his company,” he said.
Mr Adamu said the two generating sets were valued at GHc45,000 and GHc35,000 respectively and police intelligence led to the arrest of Fuseini who had displayed the generating sets for sale at Lapaz, in Accra, for GH¢8,000 each.
Police investigations showed that though the generators had been sold to a buyer in Kumasi who had paid the money to Emma through mobile money, they were yet to transport the sets to the buyer.
How generating sets were stolen
He said during interrogation, Emma confessed that on July 19, 2015, he had informed Yahaya that he had some generating sets for sale and he wanted a buyer.
On July 26, 2015 between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., Emma went to the Kakari Shopping Centre on the Spintex Road where Sulas Enterprise was located with a crane truck and told the security personnel that he had been hired by the owner of the company to pick up some generating sets for servicing.
Mr Adamu said Emma then sent the generating sets to Yahaya at the Mannet Junction on the Spintex Road who also called Alhassan at Agbogbloshie, informing him about the generating sets which were up for sale.
Alhassan is said to have called a man identified only as Wayo in Kumasi and told him about the generating sets after which Wayo expressed interest and they agreed on GH¢8,000 as the price for the generating sets.
He said Emma was wanted by the police in a case where he was said to have hired a Kia Rhino truck fixed with crane, with registration number GS 9843-12, to steal generating sets on the premises of MCOTTLEY Money lending Company on the Spintex Road on July 21,2015.
The truck happened to be the same truck used for stealing the generating sets from the other companies.
The generators had been retrieved after the driver of the truck and his conductor were arrested while Emma managed to escape arrest.
The truck has been impounded and the two other generating sets stolen from the premises of Sulas Enterprise have also been recovered.
