Kotoka International Airport Robber Nabbed

A man suspected of being a leader of a group of armed robbers who have been trailing people arriving at the Kotoka International Airport to their homes to rob them has been arrested. Magnus Otroku, alias Kobby, was arrested after one of his accomplices, Nana Ahinful, was arrested at the Kwame Nkrumah circle in Accra offering some passports belonging to some of their victims for sale. A Toyota Yaris saloon car, with registration number GR 1097 Y, which the gang uses to trail their victims has also been impounded. The registration number of the car has been found to be that of KIA Sportage car, while a spare number plate GR 5723 Z was also retrieved from the boot of the vehicle. Two other members of the gang, identified only as Bright and Biggie, are ye to be arrested. The police suspect that Biggie is the same as John Kofi Fiagbedzi, alias Spider, alias Leon, on whom the police had placed a GH�4,000 price tag. The modus operandi of the gang is to wait in their car at a Filling Station near the airport to trail their victims to their houses before robbing them of personal effects and other valuable property brought from abroad. Briefing newsmen in Accra yesterday, the Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio Atinga, said following a series of complaints about armed robbers trailing people from the airport and attacking them at the gates of their homes, the police undertook a number of operational measures at the airport to gather as much intelligence and intensify their patrols. She explained that all the complaints lodged with the police indicated that four men, using an ash Toyota Yaris car, trailed the victims from the airport to the entrances to their homes and attacked them. She cited an incident on September 5, 2009, in which a woman was trailed to her East Legon residence and attacked by the robbers, who took away all her luggage including her passport. DCOP Atinga said on September 8, 2009, a couple was also attacked by four men and deprived of the luggage their relative had just brought from abroad, with the most recent case taking place on September 15, 2009 in which a lady was also deprived of her luggage at the entrance to her residence. According to her, the Nima police arrested four men at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle on September 8, 2009, offering a passport for sale. She said the four suspects, Justice Nana Arhinful, Kweku Acheampong, Nana Kwabena Dallas and Kofi Boakye, alias Onassis, who are all currently on bail, mentioned Magnus Otroku, alias Kobby, as the source of the passport. DCOP Atinga said the Madina Police on September 16, 2009 spotted Kobby in a wine Toyota Yaris car, with registration number GR 1097 Y at the Madina taxi rank and arrested him. She said Kobby allegedly confessed to changing the colour of the car from ash to wine four days prior to his arrest. She said Kobby then led the police to his hotel hideout in Ashaley Botwe, where he had been lodging for two weeks. The police retrieved pieces of cloths, jewellery, watches and an American passport from the hotel. DCOP Atinga said Kobby led the police to a hideout at Nungua, where he suspected Bright and Biggie were hiding. At the place, she said, a 24-year old man, Iddrisu Lamin, suspected to be an apprentice to his senior brother, Mohammed Sualisu, was arrested for opening a shrine, where suspected criminals went to fortify themselves before embarking on their operations.