Ebenezer Arthur, an operator of car rental business in Takoradi, has accused the Western Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Reuben Asiwoko of allegedly conniving with the chief of Mempeasem in the Central Region to steal his car.
According to the businessman, the Regional Crime Officer, who was mandated to enforce the law, had allegedly collaborated with the chief to swindle him.
Addressing a press conference in Takoradi, Mr Arthur explained that the chief of Mempeasem, Nana Nyame IV about three years ago entered into an agreement to buy his Nissan Murano vehicle with registration number WR 390-11 at a cost of GH₵30,000.00.
Mr Arthur indicated that the chief took possession of the car on September 9, 2013 with a promise to make full payment promptly.
He indicated that the chief later informed him that he wanted to pay for the vehicle with seven plots of land by a roadside at Mempeasem and he agreed.
Ebenezer Arthur told journalists that when he decided to develop the land, he realized that the tracts of land had already been sold to another person.
“I got to know that the chief had sold the land to someone else when I visited the area to start something on it. I therefore approached the chief and Nana Nyame apologized and assured that he will give me another land,” he noted.
“Because of what happened earlier, I told the chief that I do not need the land and so he should pay me with cash and all this while, the vehicle was with the chief.”
Ebenezer Arthur pointed out that instead of making payment, the chief went into hiding and so he reported the case to Supt Asiwoko.
“The chief was later arrested and the vehicle was impounded on April 1, 2014 but the car was at the mercy of the weather,” he said.
He indicated that the police began investigations into the case and that the crime officer sent his ‘boys’ to come to me for money to travel to the chief’s area.
The businessman alleged that after a while someone in the chief’s area told him (Ebenezer) that he had seen the chief driving the Nissan Murano vehicle in the area.
“So I quickly went to the police headquarters and lo and behold my vehicle was nowhere to be found and so I contacted the crime officer who could not give any tangible reasons for releasing the vehicle to the chief,” he stressed.
The angry Ebenezer Arthur told the media that he suspected foul play and travelled to the national police headquarters in Accra to report the case after which the Western Regional Crime Officer was summoned to the national headquarters.
“In the presence of some other senior police officers, the regional crime officer was reprimanded and asked to assist me get my car but since then I have neither received my car nor the money,” he asserted.
“I suspect that the crime officer is hiding something from me. Why should my car be released to the chief when the crime officer knows that Nana Nyame IV has not paid for the vehicle? Now I can’t locate the chief and his phones have been switched off. I even hear he has been destooled,” he told the media.
Supt Asiwoko told DAILY GUIDE that “I will not speak on this issue. I am not interested. If he had seen the need to organize press conference, the police have not got the time to react.”
He added that “we, in the police, are governed by rules and regulations and the rules do not allow me to talk on the matter, I don’t need to talk about it, he can go ahead and accuse me.”
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