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A senior officer of the Ghana Prisons Service has been reprimanded for the wrongful release of six suspected armed robbers in lawful custody. Superintendent Gershon Tetteh was found guilty by a panel set up by the Prisons authorities to establish the circumstances under which the suspects were released in August last year, although officials of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison had about four remand warrants on them. The suspects, who are currently on the run, are Eric Yaw Ahenkora, Isaac Obeng Owusu, Frank Agorku, Stephen Numekpe, Rowland Hayford and Isaac Mensah. A seventh suspect, Paul Bortey, was, however, re-arrested when he allegedly took part in another robbery in December last year. The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Mr Courage Atsem, told graphic.com.gh that Mr Tetteh was �severely reprimanded� for not conducting due diligence and not following laid down procedures before releasing the trial prisoners. He said the panel established that although Supt Tetteh was guilty, he did not do that intentionally. ASP Atsem said the panel also established that money did not change hands prior to the release, hence the minor sanction of a severe reprimand. Robbery cases The suspects were on remand on four different robbery cases against them but were released after the state filed a nolle prosequi in one of the cases. Supt Tetteh was found guilty for not conducting due diligence before releasing the suspects, since there were three remand warrants in respect of the suspects in his possession. Moreover, instead of releasing the suspects to either the police investigator or a court bailiff in line with the procedures, Supt Tetteh released the suspects to an unknown individual. The release of the suspects was also without the discharge warrant from the court which would have been held by the police or a court bailiff. A police report on the incident explained that the procedure for the release of trial prisoners involved a court bailiff or the police warrant officer serving the detention authorities �with the court order, together with a Discharge Warrant with a letter attached from the registrar of the court�. �In this instance, the prison authorities did not follow the laid down procedure and could not even tell who brought the order to them,� it said. The report said the orders the prison authorities relied on before releasing the prisoners was the case in which the state had entered a nolle prosequi in a case in which the suspects had even been granted bail. According to the police, because there were other remand warrants for the prisoners, the suspects were not released but kept in custody. �The prison authorities were aware and had in their possession other remand warrants from both the High Court and the Circuit Court in respect of other pending robbery cases against the six released suspects and it was, therefore, strange to have released the prisoners without consulting the police,� it stated. Background Providing a background to the incident, the police report said on October 26, 2010, March 10, 2011 and June 1, 2011, duplicate case dockets in respect of five robbery cases were forwarded to the Attorney-General�s Department for study and prosecution. According to the report, the accused persons were on remand by High Court 21 and Circuit Court 1 after they had been provisionally charged for conspiracy and robbery. It said Eric, Isaac and Paul were later granted bail by the Human Rights Court in respect of two of the cases and the case adjourned to February 18, 2011. It said the accused persons were re-arrested at the next adjourned date and remanded into custody due to the other pending robbery cases against them. It mentioned Mr Moses Dominic Bakoma, Mr Richard Dzamavi, Mr Paul Abarga and Ms Alisah Fabien, all of the Attorney-General�s Department, as those who were handling the four other robbery cases against the accused persons. The report, however, said after interviewing some of the victims in respect of the case she was handling, Ms Fabian filed a nolle prosequi signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions at Circuit Court 1 after the victims could not identify those who had robbed them. Based on that application, the Circuit Court, on August 12, 2011, discharged the seven suspects while they were still in custody. Oversight On August 26, 2011, the police went to the Nsawam Prison for the accused persons to be arraigned, only to be told that the suspects had been released based on a court order. �On 29/08/2011, DSP Joseph Oppong, accompanied by an Inspector from the Regional CID, contacted the Nsawam Prison authorities about the release of the six prisoners and it was confirmed to them by the Prisons Director that on August 19, 2011, a man whose name they could not tell brought a court order from the Circuit Court for the discharge of the six prisoners. That consequent upon this order, A1-A6 were released to go, despite the fact that two other robbery cases were pending against them of which remand warrants from the High Court and Circuit Court 1 were in their possession. �When the police enquired from him as to why they did so, he stated that it was an oversight on the part of the officers who effected the release,� the report said.