There are some in the Ghana Police Service who really embody their motto which is “Service with Integrity” while others are an embarrassment to themselves, their families, the entire police force and the nation as a whole. Some stories we hear about some of our security personnel cause us to pause and wonder how such hardened criminals manage to find their way into the force in the first place. An ex-convict decided to bare it all on Happy FM’s Nsem Pii show, recounting his life as an armed robber and giving us a glimpse of the kind of activities going on in our prisons, and sadly we are not so surprised.
The ex-convict, who will be referred to as Koo for purposes of anonymity, made a lot of revelations to the host, Pastor Nyansa Boakwa. Explaining how he got into the life of crime, Koo said his father neglected him as a young boy and by the age of 15 he had to go into gambling since he had to drop out of school. Using his cunning at that age, he managed to tamper with the cards of a rich man he was playing with after conspiring with the woman who sold them, through which he won about GHS10,000. This didn’t go down well with the rich man who suspected foul play and refused to pay, and this ended up in a knife fight which resulted in the man getting injured. He made away with the money and gave his conspirator her share.
But the said rich man didn’t give up without a fight and reported Koo to the police, accusing him of theft and that’s how he ended up getting jailed for two years. According to him, while in jail, most prisoners have to succumb to dehumanizing treatments just to survive because the conditions in there are very poor. “The food served there was so terrible that it was not fit for a dog. The banku had no salt and the soups were so light that you could see your reflection in it”, he said.
Due to the very porous conditions, poor inmates had to prostitute themselves to older inmates with money by offering them anal sex in exchange for money and comfort. In order to survive Koo had to befriend a group of armed robbers in the jail and pretend to be one of them, going as far as lying that he killed someone during a robbery attack and that’s how he landed in jail. While in jail, these robbers were still in correspondence with their associates on the outside and would often share vital information with them till they were released to go on their own operations. According to Koo, house helps, drivers and personal assistants of their targets were the ones who provided information to these armed robbers.
When finally initiated into the gang with other inmates, they met often in the backyard of the prison to train and they were given 99 laws to abide by. Anyone who breached these laws was fined and inability to pay the fines resulted in them getting jailed within the jails by the leader of the gang. After two years of training he was released and with the help of his “masters”, he went into full-time armed robbery himself.
After getting a tip from a house-girl in Awoshie that her employer had come home with an amount of GHS80,000, Koo set off for his first armed robbery expedition and even though they didn’t have their own guns, some policemen were unscrupulous enough to give them their guns for operation, in exchange for a share of the booty. After successfully duplicating the keys to the targetted house with help from the housemaid, they were ready for action.
During the mission, Koo was instructed to rape the 13-year-old daughter of the victims in front of her parents but he didn’t have the heart for it. However, his partner was only too happy to take his place and he mercilessly raped the poor girl in front of her parents who could only wail and wonder why they were so heartless. The father collapsed but he was revived and made to watch as they raped his wife too right before his eyes. All of this was too much for Koo and he started having second thoughts about his new-found occupation.
When the mission was completed, the housemaid got her share of GHS5000, the policeman who rented the guns to them got his GHS5000 and Koo also got his GHS5000 which he was very pleased about.