A middle-aged man Sunday afternoon escaped what could have been the latest addition to cases of instant justice in Accra, after an angry mob held him for an alleged phone theft.
A crowd of roughly 30 men, with red rage glaring in their eyes, were only stopped from doing their worst when policemen from the Accra Central Police Station appeared on the scene at the Kantamanto Market to rescue the besieged man.
Kwame John (not his real name) was being pelted with blows by the crowd for the alleged theft of an iPhone. When police arrived at the scene, a dozen men in the crowd were arguing with the suspect and shouting threats at him; one man struck him with metal strips.
They claimed he was an accomplice to the theft of a boy’s phone, and some claimed he even matched the description of the thief given by the victim’s mother, who apparently tipped them off.
The enraged crowd argued briefly with police to leave the matter in their hands. “Of course, this the police cannot allow,” said Corporal Daniel Adieu, of the Accra Central Police. “The correct procedure is that we must take the person in.”
Several claimed that the suspect was a known thief in the Kantamanto Market. He was eventually removed from the mob’s custody by the police for questioning. “We’re cool here”, said one of the assailants to Graphic Online before police arrived. “You should leave this matter to us.” Several in the crowd attempted to seize this reporter’s camera for tipping the police off to the suspect’s predicament.
Vanishing act
The 18-year-old victim, who is a secondary school student at Asylum Down in Accra, alleges that the “thief” approached him and his mother as they arrived to the home of his uncle. Claiming to be a drinks deliveryman, he asked the young victim to follow him to a nearby store.
At the store, he took 10 GH¢10 in payment from the boy, then asked to borrow his mobile phone to confirm the delivery with his uncle. After the victim dialed the phone for the man, the latter began to chat casually, as if he knew the boy’s uncle. As he spoke on the phone, he vanished out through the back gate of the building.
The boy’s mother said that the suspect in custody was dressed entirely differently from the thief, but that he had similar facial scars. “Once I told them about the scars, that’s when the boys [the locals] went to get him,“ she said. “He looked a bit bigger [than the thief], his overall appearance was different… but I’ve heard they [thieves] will change their appearance.”
Cpl. Adieu confirmed that changing apparel is a common practice among swindlers operating in Accra, and that often these scammers require the assistance of accomplices in the area.
Street justice
The young victim’s mother told Graphic Online that she alerted local “caretakers” to the crime, who then rounded up a man nearby who matched the thief’s basic description. According to her, while the suspect claimed he had no knowledge of the stolen phone, he made the critical error of mentioning the GH¢10 which was also taken from the victim.
“When he started talking about the 10 cedis, they knew he had to be involved; how else would he have known?” the victim’s mother quipped. Cpl. Adieu said that in recent months the Accra Police have been intensifying their patrols at Kantamanto.
“Today happened to be an unusual day,” Cpl. Adieu said. “We have been able to reduce the crime rate [in Kantamanto] with increased patrols, and pick-pocketing has been reduced.”
“I think if we had left it up to them [the crowd], they probably would have beaten him up and he would have spoken,” the victim told Graphic Online. “The police have processes they must follow,” his mother added. “It is a bureaucracy.” She added that such crimes are a “shame,” because they make it difficult to trust strangers in Accra.
As this reporter got into a taxi with the police, the suspect, and the victims of the alleged theft, the mob surrounded the car and beat on the hood with their palms. “Next time, I won’t trust anybody with my iPhone,” the young man said later, with a smile.
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