Four Police Officers indicted in a Ghc1.3 million gold scam have threatened to sue the Police Service over what they describe as negative media campaigns against them.
A licensed US gold buying firm, Green Global Resources, had accused the Ghana Police of serious corruption at the highest level in the case of an alleged GHc 1.3 million gold scam.
[contextly_sidebar id=”JiwgdHhiv7pNv1LNwqq0JEYvyh0Cfq3k”]This gold scam case led to the interdiction of the then-East Legon Police Commander, DSP Emmanuel Basintale, and 6 others, after they allegedly seized 13 gold bars from the firm under the pretext that they bought stolen gold. The group is believed to have been led by DSP Basintale.
Lawyer for DSP Basintale and his three other colleagues, Kissi Agyebeng, in a statement said his clients“have borne in silence the brunt of the odium the publications reduced them to in their name, reputation, and standing in society, until now.”
He further explained that, initially, the Police Service was given “the benefit of its stature that it would institute a service enquiry timeously to establish the veracity or otherwise of the allegations, should it find the need to do so upon their interdiction” but recent events have given indication that “the Ghana Police Service is unwilling to act within the confines of law and regulation in this matter”
The lawyer also made the following clarifications on behalf of his clients
- Our clients were dutifully doing their job and proceeded to arrest suspects upon a complaint and after investigations, they arraigned the suspects.
- Our clients have not engaged in any criminality by any stretch of the legal and factual imagination
- The confessed suspects who had been charged with the respective offences before court were faced by the CID Headquarters
- The CID Headquarters has now declared them wanted again
- The substance purported to be gold has not been independently assayed to establish their nature and substance
- The suspects confessed to defrauding the complainants and switching the actual gold for fake gold
- The Ghana Police Service is perpetrating an illegality by purporting to hold a service enquiry in respect of our clients in flagrant violation of C.I 76
Meanwhile, Ghana Police Service has disputed claims it has not been committed and transparent in the investigation of the Ghc1.3 million gold scam.
The Police’s Public Affairs Director, Sheila Abayie Buckman, indicated that, the US firm was well aware that the police personnel involved in that scam were undergoing disciplinary action, among others.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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