The five fake soldiers in police custody
The Kaneshie Police have arrested five men who posed as soldiers and terrorized people at Kaneshie.
Two other suspects, who were alleged to have helped the five to acquire some military accoutrements including military identity cards, have also been arrested by the police.
The suspects are Michael Osei Mantey, a 21-year-old school cadet instructor, Alex Tawura, 25, a tailor, Wonder Onyafia Agbewonu, 28-year-old mason, Samuel Osei Manu, 27, school cadet instructor, and David Opoku, 25.
Their civilian accomplices are George Kumi, 32, a video studio operator and Salas Antwi, an apprentice.
Five fake military identity cards, military uniforms and other accoutrements were found on them after a thorough search was conducted at their homes.
All the seven suspects are now in police custody assisting in investigations.
Narrating their arrest to the media, Superintendent Flence Adika, the Kaneshie District Police Commander, said the gang was nabbed when one of them, Michael Mantey, reported a taxi driver to the police for assault.
On June 10, 2013, around 2:00pm, suspect Michael Mantey was returning from Kasoa in military uniform when a taxi driver accidentally crossed his vehicle at Kaneshie First Light.
Michael quickly got out of his vehicle to confront the taxi driver, but it later turned into a heated argument between them.
In the process, Mantey called on a police officer deployed to check traffic flow in the area to assist him arrest the taxi driver.
The two then led the taxi driver to the police station with a complaint that he had assaulted Michael Mantey.
Based on this, suspect Michael was given a medical form for medical care.
He left for the hospital but returned to give his first statement with suspect Alex Tawura later in the day.
In his statement to the police, he said he was a soldier attached to 5BN, living at Teshie Barracks but when a question was posed to him by the detective in charge of the case, the suspect could not answer.
Later, police investigations revealed that Michael was not a military man as he had claimed and was therefore detained.
The taxi driver also presented to the police, a military identity card bearing the name Alex Tawura that was left in his taxi by the two when he picked them from the Kaneshie Polyclinic to the station.
The police immediately accosted Tawura for investigations.
Upon interrogations, the two confessed they were not real military men and mentioned the other three as their accomplices.
They claimed that they posed as military men to protect themselves and also give security assistance to others who needed their services for a fee.
The two then led the police to arrest the three other members of the gang from their hideouts at Awoshie Anyaa, Abeka Lapaz and Mallam.
When the three were arrested, their military identity cards were also retrieved together with their uniforms.
When asked how they managed to get the military identity cards, the gang confessed that suspect Wonder stole an identity card of a military woman and gave it to suspects George Kumi and Salas Antwi to scan and reproduce identity cards for them.
Suspects George and Salas have been charged with the offence of forgery of documents while the other five who posed as soldiers have been charged for impersonation and unlawfully possessing military accoutrements without authority.
They would be sent to court today, according to Superintendent Adika.
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