Man arrested for robbery during watch-night service

A suspected serial robber is in the grip of the Airport Police in Accra for allegedly returning to a church to rob after he had earlier been captured on a CCTV camera stealing a phone at the same church.

The suspect, Kojo Annan, 43, was arrested at the Mary Mother of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church at the Airport West Residential Area about 9:30 p.m. on December 31 during the watch-night service.

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police Mrs Afia Tenge, said on December 31, 2017, a member of the Mary Mother of Good Counsel Church found that her Samsung mobile phone had been stolen during morning mass.

CCTV

The leadership of the church, in an effort to find the culprit, resorted to the CCTV system at the church and, to their surprise, they found that the CCTV camera in the church had captured the man who stole the phone.

Unknown to Annan that his earlier act had been captured on CCTV camera, he returned to the same church on the same day during the watch-night mass.

He was spotted by some church leaders who were on the lookout for him and he was arrested, with the assistance of the Airport Police Patrol Team.

Police search

When the police later searched his room, they found some items which were suspected to have been stolen.

Some of the items retrieved by the police included a number of passports belonging to different people, driving licences, a number of credit and ATM cards, ladies’ purses, three car keys, an iPhone and numerous business cards.

Mrs Tenge said the police suspected that Annan was a serial robber who frequented churches to carry out his operations and also engaged in other robbery operations.

The suspected stolen items, she said, would soon be displayed for identification by the public, while investigations continued.