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The Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, yesterday remanded the station officer in charge of the Gomoa Nyanyano Police Station, Inspector Emmanuel Kojo Ametefe and Abdulai Tijani, an electrician, in prison custody for stealing 2,200 metres of aluminium electric cables belonging to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. The cables were to be used for the government's rural electrification project in the Central Region. The accused persons pleaded not guilty and are to reappear on October 27, 2014 Facts The prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Aidan Dery, told the court that Abdulai Tijani, an electrician, lived at Konongo Odumasi in the Ashanti Region while Inspector Emmanuel Kojo Ametefe was the station officer in charge of the Gomoa Nyanyano Police Station near Kasoa. He said four other accomplices: Francis Attipoe, and others whose names were given only as Joe, Kwame and Togo were presently at large. DSP Dery said sometime in 2011, the government through the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum awarded a contract to a Tema-based company, TMG Company Limited to install electricity cables in the Central Region under the rural electrification project. TMG company sub-contracted part of the project to Bogart Company Limited and work is currently ongoing at Nankese and its surrounding communities with materials supplied by the government of Ghana. He said Attipoe was the foreman of the sub-contractors, and had engaged Joe, Kwame and Togo as his workmen. On or about August 14, 2014, Attipoe and Tijani, who were friends, agreed to steal some of the electric cables provided for the work at Nankese. Tijani went to Mankesim to engage a truck with registration No. GC 296-10, driven by a witness in the case to convey the stolen cables. Tijani also invited his friend, Inspector Emmanuel Kojo Ametefe, to help him escort the stolen cables from Nankese. On August 14, 2014 ,Tijani and Inspector Ametepe went with the hired truck to Nankese. Deputy Superintendent of Police Dery said Francis Attipoe, Joe, Kwame and Togo assisted by the other persons at the work site loaded nine bundles of 120mm aluminium electric cables into the truck. Inspector Ametefe boarded the truck while Abdulai Tijani followed up with his Toyota Avensis saloon car with registration number GT 1150-Y. At 7p.m., he arrived at a police check point on the Agona Swedru to Akim Oda main road near the Anana Khadija Islamic Girls Senior High School. A police corporal at the check point, suspecting the cables to be stolen goods, refused to accede to Inspector Ametepe's request to allow him passage with the explanation that the cables were for his personal use. Tijani fearing arrest, escaped. Inspector Ametefe also managed to escape from the check point, leaving the stolen cables behind. Messages were sent to all other police barriers and at about 9p.m., Abdulai Tijani and Inspector Ametefe were arrested at the Agona Kwanyako Police check point. Tijani once again managed to escape until October 10, 2014 when he was rearrested. During investigation, Tijani admitted that it was an agreement between him and Attipoe to steal the cables and he asked Inspector Ametefe to assist him to escort the cables to Accra. Inspector Ametefe, for his part, denied his involvement in the case but claimed he was only given a lift by Tijani.