How Lance Corporal Nyame fell from Best Recruit to ‘deadly criminal’

When the news of the preliminary investigations conducted by the Ghana Police Service into the recent attacks on bullion vans, especially in the Greater Accra region revealed that the main culprits were policemen, it broke even more hearts.

It must be stated that in one of those ghastly attacks at Adedenkpo around Jamestown, a policeman on board that van, Constable Emmanuel Osei, was shot and killed, leading to investigations into the matter.

In the recent updates on the saga, the police administration stated that the main actors in the attacks were their own men, two of whom were killed in a crossfire while leading them in an intelligence-led field raid at a hideout.

The two gunned down policemen have been identified as Constable Reindolph Gyimah Ansah and Lance Corporal Stephen Kwaku Nyame.

Since then, there have been emerging details of how Lance Corporal Stephen Kwaku Nyame’s involvement in these crimes and his eventual death has come to many as a surprise.

This is also because, according to a report by dailyguidenetwork.com, he was the best recruit during his time at training.

In the report, it said that the late L/Cpl Nyame was one of the policemen with very high prospects in the Ghana Police Service especially owing to how well-performing he was during his training.

The slain officer is said to have qualified to be a policeman in July 2017, being one of the graduands at the graduation ceremony of 618 recruits at the Tesano Police Training School in Accra.

Additionally, it is said that Corporal Kwaku Nyame was one of the pioneers to be trained in one of the Service’s strategic priorities, child friendly policing.

He is reported to have also been adjudged the Best in Drill, an award which the then Inspector General of Police, David Asante Appeatu, personally handed over to him during the passing out ceremony in 2017.

It, therefore, became a shock to some of his colleagues who could not believe that barely 5 years after he joined the Ghana Police Service, he had graduated from an ‘excellent’ police officer to being a ‘criminal,’ leading to his disgraceful death.

Earlier, GhanaWeb had reported that two policemen who were among the officers allegedly involved in bullion van robberies had been killed during an exchange of fire with the police at Ashaiman in Accra.

Four other officers have also been arrested and appeared before the court on Wednesday, March 9, a police statement said on Tuesday, March 8.

“The police have carried out an intelligence-led field raid at a hideout of the gang connected with the investigation into the bullion van robberies.

“During the raid at Borteyman near Ashaiman, there was an exchange of gunshot and two policemen, Constable Reindolph Gyimah Ansah and Cpl Stephan Kwaku Nyame who had been arrested in connection with the bullion van robberies were shot and were pronounced dead on arrival at the Police hospital for treatment.

“Further investigations have led to the arrest of five other suspects, four of whom are policemen. We are pursuing five other civilian suspects who have gone into hiding.

“The Policemen involved have been interdicted and all the suspects will be arraigned before court tomorrow Wednesday 9th March 2022,” the statement said.