Meet the six suspects in connection with killing of soldier in Ashaiman and how police arrested them

Six persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of the 21-year-old soldier, Private Imoro Sherrif, in Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

The arrests followed an intelligence-led, week-long police operation.

Those arrested separately at their various hideouts include two persons who are believed to have stabbed the soldier during an attempt to rob him of his mobile phone and his backpack, with the four others suspected to have bought the stolen phone.

A highly placed police source gave the names of the suspected killers as Safianu Musah, alias Dayorgu, and Ibrahim Abdul Rakib. 

Both were arrested at their hideouts in Ashaiman on Thursday, March 9, this year.

Last Friday, the police arrested two other suspects — Samuel Tetteh, alias Wiper, and Abubakar Sadick, alias Birdman.

Two additional suspects, Yussif Mohammed and Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim, were arrested last Saturday and yesterday, respectively.

The source said all the six suspects were currently in police custody and would be put before court today.

Background

Private Imoro was found dead in a pool of blood at Taifa, Ashaiman, at dawn on Saturday, March 4, this year. 

In a statement, the police said they received information that a male adult had been found lying dead at Ashaiman Taifa and a team of policemen was dispatched to the scene where they confirmed the incident. 

Investigation

It said the police immediately commenced investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of the victim.

As part of investigations, it said, the police cordoned off the crime scene and called in the crime scene team from the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to process the scene for forensic analysis.

At the scene, the statement said, the team retrieved a number of items, including a knife with bloodstains on it and a backpack containing a Samsung tablet, an Apple laptop, a military uniform with the name tag ‘Imoro’, eight other pieces of clothing, a Ghana Card and a health insurance card bearing the name Imoro Sheriff.

It said the police suspected that the victim could be a military person, and in line with police standard operating procedure for handling institution-based victims, the military was informed about the incident and some military men subsequently identified the deceased as Imoro Sherrif, a soldier. 

The body of the victim was conveyed to a hospital for autopsy and preservation. 

The police said an intelligence operation was immediately launched within Ashaiman and other strategic locations of interest to follow up on all relevant leads on the case.

Visits

After identifying the residence of the parents of the deceased, a team of police officers visited to commiserate with them, in line with Ghanaian tradition and as part of the investigation process, and assured the parents of thorough investigations into the matter.

The parents told the police investigators that the deceased was stationed in Sunyani but had come to Accra on a course.

The police said their investigations revealed that on March 3, 2023, Imoro had visited a female friend at Ashaiman Newtown about 10:30 p.m. and left the place about 1:30 a.m. the following day, March 4, 2023.  

Facts

The police said investigations established that suspects Tetteh and Sadick had, about 1:45 a.m. on March 4, attacked Private Imoro at Taifa Ashaiman in an attempt to rob him of his mobile phone and a backpack. 

Private Imoro resisted and struggled with the suspects but was allegedly stabbed in the arm by Tetteh, who snatched the soldier's phone, an iPhone 6, and bolted with it, leaving Imoro with the knife stuck in his arm.

Investigations also revealed that suspects Tetteh and Sadick had sold the iPhone which they had taken from the soldier to suspect Rakib, who later sold it to suspect  Musah.

During interrogation, the statement said, suspect Musah was evasive as to the whereabouts of the phone, claiming that he had sold it to suspect Mohammed and later to suspect Karim, leading to the arrest of the two suspects who are assisting in investigations to recover the phone.

On March 8, 2023, a postmortem examination was performed on the victim's body, after which the pathologist gave the cause of death as exsanguination — severe loss of blood — and laceration of major vessels of the left arm, consistent with stabbed injury, it added. 

Private Imoro was laid to rest at the Military Cemetery, Burma Camp, last Thursday, in line with Islamic tradition.

Military swoop 

Private Imoro grew up in Ashaiman but was stationed in Sunyani in the Bono Region.

He was attending a military course in Accra and sought permission from his commanders to go home and visit his parents in Ashaiman on Friday, March 3, 2023.

The soldier was later found dead in a pool of blood at dawn the next day.

His death resulted in a military swoop in the Ashaiman community on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, during which many people were brutalised in an operation the Military High Command said it had sanctioned to fish out the perpetrators.

A total of 184 suspects were picked up and detained in military custody and 150 were released the following day.

On the second day of their detention, the remaining 34 suspects were reportedly released from military custody.