Detective Lance Corporal Kwame Adu Asabereh was put in charge of a British national, Harold Davis Johnson also known as Emmanuel Snowden, to be sent to the Nsawam Prisons, but said the convict escaped while he was sleeping in a taxi cab, which was conveying them.
He told an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Patricia Amponsah, while being cross-examined by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sylvester Asare that Harold Davis, who was convicted on the offence defrauding by false pretence, escaped on the Achimota-Ofankor Highway.
According to D/L/Cpl Asabereh, he takes responsibility for being negligent while on duty, but would not accept the charge that he aided the British national to abscond from the jurisdiction.
The embattled Detective also told the court he was not the one who released convict Harold’s passport to him to flee, which suggested that others might have played a role.
As a result, the accused has pleaded not guilty to the offence of forgery of official document, abetment of crime, and corruption by a public officer.
He also denied forging an official document, although he admitted preparing it under supervision, he did not sign same.
Meanwhile, the prosecuting officer, DSP Asare, informed the court that the convict was released to the accused on September 10, 2019, who never returned him and rather chose to shuttle between his home and the police station.
The prosecutor also alleged that the escapee paid D/L/Cpl Asabereh £10,000 to allow him to escape from the jurisdiction.
DSP Asare queried his junior officer on how the fugitive was visiting the Mamprobi Police Station from Achimota between May 2019 and September 2019.
He added that the denial of the accused that he did not sign a statement, which he prepared under supervision, was inconsistent with his subsequent entries that the runway was in police custody.
The prosecuting officer indicated that the accused was not being truthful to the court, because on September 30, 2019, the trial court did not sit, “so Exhibit B, page 2, where you stated that you hired a taxi after court session to send the convict to Nsawam was incorrect.”
He stressed that between May 8th and September 30, 2019, the convict was still in the jurisdiction and was captured being in police custody, therefore, Harold escaped only after September 2019.
Fate of D/L/Cpl Asabereh
The court has adjourned the case to October 28, 2022, to decide on the embattled police officer’s fate.
Background
D/L/Cpl Asabereh made his first appearance in court on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 on the charge that with intent to deceive the Director-General of CID, he allegedly forged the police prisoners’ removal book to suggest that convict Harold was sent or received by the Nsawam Prisons authorities.
Also with the intent to prevent execution of the law, he allegedly facilitated the escape of the convict who was in his custody, and in respect of his duties an police officer, allowed himself to be influenced by the convict on the promise that he would assist him to travel abroad if he released his passport to him.
Brief facts
The court was told that the accused person was a Police Officer stationed at the CID Headquarters, Accra.
However, somewheres in the year 2019, a case of defrauding by false pretences involving one Harold Davies Johnson alias Emmanuel Snowden, a British national, who was reported by Dr. Shadrack Asare was referred to the accused person for investigation.
After the investigation, the accused person was instructed to charged and arraigned Harold Davies Johnson for court for the offence of defrauding by false pretences.
Harold Davies Johnson was subsequently arraigned before the Accra Circuit Court ‘2’, presided over by H/H Naa Adjetey Quaison, and pleaded guilty Simplicita to the charge.
Harold Davies Johnson was convicted on his own plea of guilty to three years imprisonment, and was handed over to the accused person, who was then the case officer, to be sent to Nsawam Prison.
Surprisingly, the accused person failed to send the convict to the prison, and rather elected to send the convict to his house at Sarpeman to live with him for some time.
Further investigations had it that upon the promise by the convict to assist the accused person to travel abroad, and in consideration, the accused person released the convict’s British passport, which was in his custody, to the convict to travel to the United Kingdom.
That the accused person, to conceal his act, forged the Police Removal of Prisoner book to suggest that the convict had been sent and received by the Nsawam Prison authorities. Upon arrest of the accused person, he admitted the facts as being correct.
