Bullion van robberies: Tears flow as court denies accused police officers bail again

The four police officers standing trial for their alleged involvement in multiple bullion van robberies have once again been remanded into custody by an Accra Circuit Court.

The bill application moved by the counsels for the four accused persons during sitting on Monday, April 25, 2022, was denied by the presiding judge, Evelyn Asamoah having heard arguments from both the prosecution and counsels for the defense.

At the commencement of sitting on Monday, the prosecution led by DSP Sylvester Asare prayed the court for an adjournment to give the prosecution more room to finalise its case against the accused persons.

On the back of the prosecution’s prayer, the defense prayed for the court to grant their client’s bail.

Arguing on the same subject, the defense lawyers took turns to ask the court to grant their clients bail on the basis that their clients were unduly being held by the prosecution who are using their detention before trial as a punishment.

Justin Teriwajah, one of the defense lawyers told the court that the prosecution, despite bringing their clients to court on multiple occasions over the last two months, has failed to serve charges on the accused person.

The defense lawyers said their clients have been prepared with sureties to guarantee their bill conditions and thus prayed the court to grant them bail while praying for favourable bail conditions.

In response, DSP Asare argued that the accused persons will fail to show up for trail if granted bail and thus opposed the bail application by the defense counsels.

Citing the severity of the case, Judge Evelyn Asamoah denied the bail application and adjourned the case to May 17, 2022.

It was at this point that the emotions of the accused persons which seemingly had been building up throughout the over an hour legal arguements came to bare.

Lined up behind their lawyers and wearing white-coloured shirts, Constable Afisu Yarro (A1) hit the walls of the court with a clinched first amidst tears drawing down his cheeks when the judge delivered her ruling.

While Constable Afisu wiped away his tears, Constable Albert Ofosu (A2) who was directly behind him raised his head up to the skies in bid to hold back his tears.

The disappointment of spending the next two weeks in custody was also visible on the faces of Constable Richard Boasu (A3) and Constable Rabiu Jambedu (A4) who were also taking time to process the realities of the ruling by the court.

They were later marched into a police pickup truck to spend the next two weeks in custody.