Two charged with robbing ambassador.

By William Yaw Owusu.

Wednesday July5,2006
Two men were yesterday arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court charged with conspiracy, unlawful entry, causing unlawful harm and stealing.

On May 30, George Lankai Lamptey popularly called Sexual, a Welder and Daniel Odartey Quarcopome also known as Goodman, unemployed, broke into the car of Alhaji Rashid Bawa then Ambassador designate to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which was parked in front of the Landing Restaurant at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

Alhaji Bawa had gone to the airport to meet the Saudi Prince who was visiting the country.

The two men allegedly stole the letter of credence signed by the President, five passports (two of which are Diplomatic), 2,000 dollars, other currencies in various denominations, Saudi resident permit, bank documents, airline ticket and other important traveling documents.

They also bolted with two mobile phones valued at over ¢10million cedis, birth certificates, car keys, credit cards and other business documents.

They sold the Diplomatic passports to two other traders, shared the money and claimed later that they had thrown all the documents into the Korle Lagoon.

At court in Accra yesterday, the two men together with Marvin Kotey also known as Ola and Thomas Kwadwo Opoku, popularly called Akio, all Traders (those who bought the passports) were put in the dock.

Lamptey and Quarcopome pleaded not guilty the charges while Kotey and Opoku also pleaded not guilty to dishonestly receiving.

They were all remanded until July 18, to enable the police to conduct thorough investigations into the matter.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Emmanuel Amegah told the court that on June 16, the Criminal Investigations Department had a hint that Opoku was offering for sale a Diplomatic passport at Tip Toe Lane at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra and feigned interest.

When Opoku was arrested, the police retrieved one Diplomatic passport and another Ghanaian passport from him and he mentioned Kotey as his accomplice.

Kotey was also nabbed and he led the police to arrests Lamptey and Quarcopome as the men who had brought it to him for sale.
Lamptey and Quarcopome admitted the offence and they told interrogators that they had thrown the documents into the lagoon.

ASP Amegah told the court that the police had been able to retrieve the Diplomatic passports and another Ghanaian passport.