Drama as robbery victims identify notorious robber
There was drama at the Kasoa Police Station when the police paraded some suspects of various crimes for identification.
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Most of the people who showed up at the identification parade identified Mike Kelson, a suspected notorious robber, as the robber who attacked them in their residences in Kasoa and its surroundings.
Though Kelson had been lined up with other suspects, eight victims separately pointed him out as the leader of the gang which dispossessed them of their money and other valuables.
Among the victims was a woman who said but for providence she would have been raped by Kelson who attacked her in her home at Amanfrom.
Two of the victims who intermittently lifted their hands as a gesture to thank God for the arrest of the suspect claimed he had raped women in their households during the robbery operation.
Victims tell police their story
Briefing the Daily Graphic after the identification parade, the Kasoa District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police Mr Samuel T. Punobyin, said some of the stolen items had been retrieved by the police from the suspects’ room.
He said some of the victims included a policeman at Amanfrom, a businessman at Iron City and six other persons from Kasoa.
Mr Punobyin said the businessman, who is popularly referred to as Burger, was attacked on January 16, 2016 at his house at Iron City, a suburb of Amanfrom, near Kasoa.
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Mr Punobyin said the businessman identified his backpack said to have been used by Kelson in his operations.
The black bag has a metallic silver skull and metallic thorns on it.
According to the businessman, the gang made away with $4,000 and GH¢200, as well as four mobile phones.
On the part of the policeman who had filed a complaint with the Amanfrom Police, Mr Punobyin said Kelson and his gang made away with GH¢5,000 and five mobile phones.
In addition to a laptop, Mr Punobyin said the gang also demanded and took away GH¢30, which was the only money on his wife and the purse where the money was kept.
Background
Kelson, 25, who is alleged to have recruited robbers to ‘terrorise’ residents of Amanfrom and Kasoa in the Central Region, was arrested on January 23, 2016 by the Kasoa Police.
The suspect, who had been described by the police as a notorious and dangerous man, was arrested through police intelligence while he was relocating to Tema with his wife and his child.
The police said Kelson’s name was put on the police wanted list shortly after he had been released from police custody where he had been for about four years and was standing trial at the Swedru Circuit Court.
According to the police, Kelson was released on June 4, 2015 after the Accra High Court had granted him bail based on a motion filed by his father.
Kelson is said to have been involved in a series of robberies in Kasoa, Amanfrom and the surrounding areas and is suspected to be the leader of a gang of robbers, many of whom have been arrested. Two of his accomplices are said to have been lynched at Kasoa last year.
Police intelligence gathered showed that Kelson recruited robbers from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and other places whenever he had a robbery operation.
Mr Punobyin said numerous attempts to arrest the suspect and some of his gang members in the past had been unsuccessful.
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Items retrieved from Kelson included mobile phones, wax prints, mobile phone cases, a military cap and a bag.