Car Snatcher Grabbed

Luck eluded a 37-year-old knife-wielding driver who snatched a taxi from his fellow driver when the Ashanti Regional Police Command traced and finally nabbed him at Tabere in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region. The suspect, Eric Appiah, popularly known as Lallas, was apprehended by the police at about 7pm on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 in the company of an accomplice (name withheld) who is now on the run. ASP Rev. S. Nyamekye Adane-Ameyaw of the Police Buffalo Unit related that on July 13, 2009, the complainant, a taxi driver, reported to his outfit that he had been robbed of his KIA Pride taxi with registration number AS 462-09 by two unknown assailants. Briefing Daily Guide, he recounted that the complainant narrated that Appiah boarded the car at the Kumasi Central Market where he told him to help him take his sick brother from the Komfo Anokye Hospital (KATH) to Alhaji Sheikh Amin Bonsu Clinic at Kwadaso, a suburb in Kumasi, for treatment. According to ASP Adane-Ameyaw, the complainant complied and on reaching the KATH taxi rank, the supposed burned victim was waiting there with a bandaged arm soaked with GV paint. He said getting close to the said clinic at Atwima Techiman, the so-called sick person held complainant�s neck from the back whilst Appiah demanded his car keys at knife point. The police said the assailants overpowered the victim, drove him far away and threw him out of the car. The driver later reported the unfortunate incident to the police. After thorough investigations, the police managed to trace the abandoned vehicle at Konongo-Odumase in the Asante Akim North District of the Ashanti Region. The ASP related that the suspects had abandoned the vehicle because all efforts to sell it proved futile and they were afraid the police would identify the stolen car and arrest them. Narrating further, ASP Adane-Ameyaw said that police intensified their search for the suspects by employing the services of a spy who trailed Appiah even on the vehicles he boarded. Eventually, Appiah was grabbed at Wenchi in the Brong-Ahafo Region. ASP Adane-Ameyaw revealed that Appiah confessed to the crime when he was grabbed at Tabere Toll Booth, a few kilometres away from Kumasi, but said that his other accomplices were on the run. According to the ASP, �to allow further investigations to enhance efficient policing to arrest the others, the police have put Appiah before court�. Appiah is being charged with robbery. Meanwhile, investigations are underway to apprehend the accomplices while Appiah, who is to reappear in court at a later date, is on remand.