One of the accused persons demanded GHC800k for Canadian girls kidnapping deal – Detective reveals
A prosecution witness in the Canadian girls kidnapping case said his investigation uncovered a grand scheme of what appeared to be a plan to kidnap the two girls for money.
Detective Sergeant Slyvester Essel, on Monday, told the court that one of the four accused persons Samson Agharlor had planned to recoup GHC800,000 as proceeds of the kidnapping deal.
The four accused persons agreed to part ways with GHC200,000 each, as compensation.
This came to light after the Detective retrieved audio recordings of conversations that had transpired between one of the accused persons (Samson Agharlor) and a certain Atsu.
“On the vivo phone which is labelled Samson Agharlor, I noticed that the device had audio recording abilities that allowed all calls to be recorded.
“I proceeded to listen to the audio recording that was identified on the vivo phone. After listening to the audio, I noticed that the frequent callers were Atsu Drover, Mansion-GH, Tools and Razak.
“In the one of recorded files, I heard the user of the Vivo phone (Samson Agharlor) say ‘Atsu I am the one who brings the kidnapping deals’ and again, it was noted that the user of the vivo phone demanded GHC800,000” the detective narrated.
According to the detective, investigations also showed the two had communicated about 60 times during the kidnapping period.
The detective said the two then proceeded with other team members to meet up at one of the country’s biggest mall, Accra Mall, to execute the GHC800,000 job.
At some point in the discovery process, the detective said Atsu changed his number, to a new one captured as 0245777256.
At the last sitting, the detective told the court that he was given some phones belonging to the accused persons to analyse.
About ten phones were seized including a Techno, Infinix, and a Vivo phone.
Mr Essel is with the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department and he is the tenth prosecution witness.
He has submitted a 59-page report of his investigation. The report contains images, audio transcripts and contact numbers of the accused persons.
He is yet to be cross examined by Counsel for the accused persons Yaw Dankwa.
Background
The four accused persons; Sampson Agharlor, Elvis Ojiyorwe, Jeff Omarsar and Yusif Yakubu are standing trial to charges of conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
Charges, they have all pleaded not guilty to. The four are being held for the various roles in the kidnapping of Miss Lauren Patricia Catherine Tiley and Miss Bailey Jordan Chilley.
The two University of New Brunswick students were abducted on June 4, 2019 while volunteering for a Non Governmental Organisation.
They were rescued that same month, which led to the arrest of the suspects.
The two are believed to have been abducted at the Kumasi Royal Golf Club at 8:25pm, according to a news release from the Ghana Police Service.
Medical reports confirmed the girls were returned physically unhurt.
The case continues on March 30, 2021.