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The Oda Police have arrested a 23-year-old driver, Ebenezer Odum, alias Lewing, for allegedly murdering two taxi drivers and burning their bodies beyond recognition. The suspect is said to have stolen the vehicles belonging to his victims. Odum, a native of Bonsankro near Bechem in the Brong Ahafo Region, allegedly gave one of the stolen taxis to his 23-year-old girlfriend, Olivia Copey, a hairdresser in Oda, and used the other for commercial purposes in Sunyani. But a collaboration between the Akyem Oda and the Sunyani police led to Odum�s arrest after he had seriously injured another taxi driver in an attempt to snatch his taxi. Briefing the Daily Graphic in Oda last Monday, the Oda Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Mr James Sarfo- Peprah, said on August 13,2013, a taxi driver who had now been identified as Benson Cudjoe Debrah was murdered and the body burnt near A.K. Wood sawmills at Akyem Manso, a distance of about 12 kilometres from Oda. He said after Debrah had been killed, Odum took Debrah�s taxi to Sunyani to use for commercial purposes. Mr Sarfo-Peprah said before then, Odum had allegedly murdered another taxi driver, whose name was only given as Louis, and stolen his Hyundai taxi, with registration number BA 2742-13, and gave it to Olivia in Oda as a gift. According to him, after Debrah�s murder and the theft of his Hyundai Atos taxi with registration number GW 6997-12, the Oda Police sent a wireless message to all police stations in the country about the deceased�s murder and the missing vehicle. He said early in November 2013, Odum had attempted to kill another taxi driver called Benjamin, aka Home Boy, at New Dormaa, a suburb of Sunyani, by inflicting deep cuts on his throat and neck in order to steal his taxi. Mr Sarfo-Peprah stated that despite the serious wounds he sustained, Cudjoe managed to escape to a nearby house where he fell and collapsed while bleeding profusely. He said sensing danger, Odum rushed to the Sunyani Police Station to lodge a complaint that armed robbers had attacked him and wanted to snatch his taxi from him but that he had managed to stab one of them He said the police decided to accompany the complainant to the spot and, on the way, they met Cudjoe, accompanied by another person, on his way to report of an attempt on his life, while he bled from the wound on his neck where he had been stabbed. He said when the two different complainants pointed the same spot to the police as the battlefield, the police became suspicious and arrested Odum to assist them in their investigations into the matter, while Cudjoe was rushed to the hospital where he was admitted for treatment. Mr Sarfo-Peprah said as Odum�s taxi bore the name and address of a different person and the suspect could not produce the relevant documents to prove that the vehicle belonged to him, the police proceeded to Accra to conduct investigations on the real owner of the vehicle. He said after the investigations, the police realised that the vehicle belonged to one Y. Bortey of Oda and so they phoned Mr Bortey to find out whether his taxi was missing. The man answered in the affirmative and added that someone had stolen the vehicle about three months earlier. He said the Sunyani Police then informed the Oda Police to accompany Mr Bortey to Sunyani with the documents on the vehicle to identify it, while the police would convey Odum to Oda for further investigations into the matter. He said when the Sunyani Police conveyed Odum to Oda and interrogated him about Debrah�s murder and the theft of his taxi, he vehemently denied any knowledge of the offences, even though Debrah's mobile phone was found in the stolen taxi. Mr Sarfo-Peprah stated that Odum was arraigned before the Oda District Magistrate Court on November 13,2013 and remanded in police custody to reappear on December 11,2013 for the police to conduct thorough investigations into the matter. He said based on a report the Sunyani Police gave the Oda Police to trace a Hyundai Atos taxi, with registration number BA 2742-13, which was missing, together with its driver, the Oda Police mounted an intensive search for the vehicle in Oda on November 15,2013. Mr Sarfo-Peprah said during the search, the police saw a fitter driving the vehicle and when he was asked where he had got the taxi, he claimed that a female hairdresser had given it to him to mend a fault on it and led the police to Olivia, who was sent to the Oda Police Station to assist in investigations. He stated that during interrogations, Olivia claimed that a man she had befriended left the taxi with her about three months earlier and travelled to Sunyani but she had not heard from him since then. According to him, when Olivia was asked if he could identify the boyfriend if she saw him, she answered yes and so the Oda Municipal Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Issah Mohammed Cantona, brought the suspect from the Oda Police cells for identification. Mr Sarfo-Preprah said as soon as Olivia saw Odoum, she shouted "this is my boyfriend who left the taxi with me and has never returned to Oda". He said at that juncture, Odum , who had vehemently denied any knowledge of Debrah's murder quickly confessed that he had murdered the deceased. He said the suspect later led the police to a spot behind the Rabbson Hotel in Oda where he and his accomplice had murdered Debrah and conveyed his body to the outskirts of Manso, covered it with sawn dust and burnt it. He said Odum also allegedly confessed to the police that he had killed one Louis in Sunyani, burnt his body and taken his taxi to Oda where he had given it to his girlfriend. He said Odum also alleged that Cudjoe,who he had attempted to murder in Sunyani, had been his accomplice in the murder of the two taxi drivers in Oda and Sunyani, adding that he had slashed Cudjoe�s throat over a misunderstanding when Cudjoe wanted to cheat him in the sharing of a booty they got from armed robbery. He said the Oda Police made the Sunyani Police bring Cudjoe to Oda for interrogation on the matter. Mr Sarfo-Peprah said when the two taxi drivers met at the Oda Divisional Police Headquarters to face each other in a police interrogation, it came to light that Odum was just trying to implicate Cudjoe, who was suffering from serious injuries he had suffered from Odum. Meanwhile, Debrah�s charred body has been buried, along with other unclaimed bodies deposited at the Police Hospital in Accra, as his relatives failed to identify and collect the body. Odum has been sent to Sunyani to assist the Sunyani Police in investigations into the alleged murder of Louis.