Kinsley Ofosu, the sole survivor of the famous Deadly Voyage stowaway story in 1992, has been arrested for alleged involvement in a €120,000 scam.
Kinsley Ofosu made international headlines in 1992 with his miraculous survival from a stowaway trip.
He is said to have been arrested from a hideout at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region after almost two-and-a-half decades of relentless efforts by the police.
Ofosu was arrested on Saturday, October 14, and arraigned before the Takoradi Circuit Court B.
The prosecutor, Inspector Robert Yawson, told the court, presided over by Her Honour Henrietta Charway, that the suspect had been on the police wanted list since 1998.
He added that all efforts to have him arrested were not successful until recently.
He prayed the court to remand the suspect to enable the police to conclude their investigations.
According to the prosecution, the suspect has vacated his residence in Tanokrom, a suburb of Takoradi, and moved to an unknown location, making it difficult for the police to trace him.
He argued that the suspect might interfere in the investigations if he should be granted bail and prayed for a remand.
Counsel for the accused, Victor Owusu’s plea for his client to be granted bail was not granted.
The accused has, therefore, been remanded into police custody to reappear on Monday, October 30.
In a telephone interview with Connect FM from Germany, Charles Ohemeng, the complainant, narrated that he met the accused in Germany in 1997 after making international headlines following his miraculous escape from MC Ruby Cargo Ship.
“He was famous, and everyone was talking about him. They had given him legal documents, and so he was moving from Europe to Ghana anytime he wanted. I met him in Germany in 1997 and decided to ship some vehicles and printing machines through him to Ghana. He agreed, and we started buying the vehicles.
“I bought Mercedes Benz, tanker, Nissan, double axle vehicle, Opel, printing machines, and many others amounting to about 240,000 Deutschmark (an equivalent of 120,000 Euros) at the time.
“I shipped them to him in Ghana, and that was the end of everything. I did not hear from him again until his arrest today,” the story quotes.
International Fame
In 1992, Kingsley Ofosu made international headlines after he survived the slaughter of a group of African stowaways by the crew of a Bahamian-flagged Ukrainian-crewed cargo ship, MC Rugby.
Ofosu lost his half-brother, Albert Cudjoe, who was shot when they tried escaping as the only two survivors.
When the trial of the crew members made international headlines, multiple film companies approached Ofosu to purchase the rights to his story. He eventually struck a deal with Union Pictures and Viva Films. The Union Pictures/Viva Films production was to be distributed to and financed by HBO and the BBC.
The screenplay for Deadly Voyage was written by Stuart Urban, who used interviews with Ofosu as his primary source material. The movie was filmed in England and Ghana.
The cast of Deadly Voyage were Omar Epps as Kingsley Ofosu, Joss Ackland as the ship’s captain, Sean Pertwee as Ion Plesin, David Suchet as Andreas Vlachos, Ghana’s David Dontoh, Oscar Provencal and Juliet Asante.
