<<Print>>

The police have busted a gang of suspected land guards who have been terrorising residents of Amasaman and its environs near Accra.

The suspects include Samuel Ametepe, 32, the leader of the gang which allegedly attacks and sometimes kills its victims, usually landowners who attempt to develop their land.

The other members of the gang were identified as Ibrahim Quansah, 28; Odartey Lamptey, 21; Micheal Abbey, 21, and Afari Annang, 32. 
 
In January 2016, the suspects allegedly attacked six soldiers and burnt down their vehicle at Obaakorwa, near Amasaman, over a disputed land.

It took the intervention of the police to rescue the soldiers, who had been subjected to beatings by the gang before their rescue.

The police found a voter’s identification card and a savings book bearing the name Samuel Ametepe at the scene 

Arrest 

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Amasaman District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Elvis Bawa Sadongo, said the district police patrol team spotted the gang on board a Toyota Corolla taxi cab near Abehenease in the district.

He said the police eventually stopped the taxi after trailing it for some time and conducted a search on it.  A pump action gun, a single-barrelled gun, 32 live cartridges and a cudgel concealed in a bag and hidden in the boot of the cab were retrieved. 

Upon interrogation, Mr Sadongo said, the suspects told the police that they were going to Okusidiade to protect a piece of land belonging to their paymaster, whom they identified only as Sado, the Asafoatse of Gbawe in Accra. 

Investigations 

Mr Sadongo said preliminary investigations conducted by the police revealed that all the suspects were residents of Gbawe, near Mallam.

The suspects claimed that they obtained the weapons from Sado and that after every operation, they returned them to their alleged paymaster’s house.

Victims

News of their arrest attracted a number of their victims to the Amasaman Police Station.

Some of them were able to identify the suspects as persons who had harassed them on their land.

One of them, Mr Isaac Ashilley, in an interview, said that two of the suspects were behind the shooting and killing of his 26-year-old nephew, Sulley Amartey, who was a worker of Sally Properties, in 2013.

“Since 2012, the gang has injured and killed a number of persons in the name of protecting the land of their employer. It is good they are in the grip of the law. The law must deal with them,” Mr Ashilley said.