Two prison officers have appeared in the Accra Circuit Court on charges of aiding and abetting the escape of Wang Xiao, a Chinese prisoner convicted at Nsawam Intermediate Prison.
Joseph Oteng and Sergeant Isaac Boateng Bonsu were charged with conspiracy and aiding and abetting escape.
The defendants’ prison officers told their superiors that after visiting the hospital, a Toyota Vitz approached them and then drove off with prisoners inside.
However, their appearance was revealed by the hotel’s surveillance camera footage.
Surveillance camera footage showed the defendants taking the Chinese prisoner to a hotel and forcing him to meet his wife in his room.
The inmate and his wife allegedly escaped by climbing off the balcony of their room while officers waited in the hotel’s reception area.
They pleaded not guilty and the court presided over by Mrs. Afia Owusua Appiah granted bail in the sum of Gsh100,000 each with two sureties as may be justified.
It is scheduled to reappear on April 9, 2024.
The prosecution, led by Chief Inspector General Wisdom Arolwu, said the complainant was the third-ranking commander at Nsawam Medium Security Prison and the defendants were serving their sentences under his supervision.
Prosecutors say that on February 7, 2024, at around 7 a.m., two police officers escorted Wang Xiao, a Chinese national serving a one-year sentence at Nsawam Medium Security Prison, to Korlevu Teaching Hospital for treatment. He announced that he had been given detailed instructions to do so.
The prosecutor said that after the convict was treated by a medical officer at the dental department of the hospital, the two defendants would accompany him to the Oceans Hotel in Korle Gonno to meet his wife in exchange for a reward of GHC1,000. He said he agreed. They agreed to split it.
Chief Inspector Arrow said the defendant removed the prisoner’s handcuffs and took him to the hotel reception. The second defendant, Ms Bongsu, told her receptionist that she had come to see someone in one of the rooms.
According to prosecutors, the two defendants sent the inmate to a room where he met his alleged wife and offered him KFC rice and drinks so he could “spend time alone with her husband.”
Upon returning to the hotel room to contact the convict, the defendant discovered that the convict and his alleged wife had fled from the balcony.
The prosecutor said that after the convict fled, the accused went to Tema Station Hockey to hide the handcuffs along with a witness in the case. They immediately called their superiors in Nusawam and informed them that while they were escorting the prisoner from the hospital, they were suddenly stopped by an unregistered yellow and black Toyota Vitz taxi, and the prisoner jumped into the taxi and fled.
Prosecutors said the defendants were interrogated by their superiors at the National Prison Headquarters and then filed a formal complaint with police on February 13, 2024.
During the investigation, the suspect led police to the hotel. Examination of surveillance camera footage showed that after receiving food from the prisoner’s wife, the defendant was relaxing in the reception room when the prisoner and his wife escaped by jumping from the balcony on the first floor of the building. found.
Prosecutors said they only realized the prisoner had escaped when hotel staff alerted them to check on him.
Disclaimer: The views, comments, opinions, contributions and statements made by readers and contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policies of Multimedia Group Limited.