Watchman remanded for stealing electrical cables

A Kumasi Circuit Court has ordered that a 30-year-old watchman should be kept in police custody for stealing 20 coils of electrical cables valued at GH�1,000. Sampapbil Yeligemam, the accused, denied the charge although five of the stolen cables were retrieved from him by the police. He would re-appear on Monday, February 22, this year. Police Chief Inspector Rejoice Sumatu told the Court presided over by Mr Justice Emmanuel Amoh-Yartey that the complainant trades in electrical cables and owns a warehouse at the Race Course in Kumasi. The accused works as a night watchman at Rotary Park, adjacent to the warehouse. She said the complainant detected series of thefts and therefore, he informed the neighbours to assist him to apprehend the culprit. On January 2, this year, at about 0200 hours, a witness, who lives opposite the warehouse, spotted two young men carrying two fertilizer sacks and raised an alarm, forcing them to flee and leaving behind the sacks. The retrieved sacks containing 20 coiled electrical cables were handed over to the accused person for safe keeping and later taken to the police station. In the morning of that same day at about 0730 am, the accused was contacted for the items but he could not account for the cables and was therefore handed over to the police. He confessed to stealing them in his caution statement to the police.