A total of GHC45,000 being proceeds from three days of road toll collection, has allegedly been robbed from the Tema Motorway tollbooth in a case the Police is treating as a possible inside job.
A Police officer and a supervisor on duty at the tollbooth have already been picked up by the Police at Tema as primary suspects.
Reports say armed robbers stormed the tollbooth at the Tema end of the motorway Sunday at about 9:30pm and made away with entire revenue collected between Friday and Sunday.
However, the Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP George Tuffour, who confirmed the incident to 3News Monday morning, ruled out the armed robbery element, stating “the facts before me suggest that it might have been orchestrated” by some insiders.
“I will call it stealing instead of robbery because there is more to it than the eyes can see,” he added, stating preliminary investigations suggest “there wasn’t any force applied to the person [the tollbooth supervisor].The money was virtually handed over to these people”.
DCOP Tuffour declined to give further details, indicating that “if we put it out there some people will cover their backs”.
He said full investigations have since commenced into the matter.
Tema Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Joseph Darkwa, told 3News that the Policeman on duty at the tollbooth, Napoleon Dzonyoh, claimed he was at the opposite side of the road at the time of the incident and “did not see the tollbooth being robed”.
According to ASP Darkwa, the tollbooth supervisor, Theophilus Ankoma, “claimed at the time the robbers arrived he had not locked the safe and the doors so they [alleged robbers] collected the three days revenue”.
He said Ankoma who sustained minor cuts on the head has been arrested and assisting in investigations while the policeman has also “been picked up” to assist in investigations.
Further, he said the officer would be subjected to disciplinary action for ‘abandoning’ his duty post.
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