K’si Kidnappers Kept Photos Of Victims
The suspects arrested in the kidnapping of two Canadian ladies in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region in 2019 kept pictures of the victims on their phones.
Some of the images showed the victims sitting on the floor with their hands tied to their backs.
According to a police forensic report, there was blood-like stains on the bodies of the victims.
The suspects also created different visa accounts and the investigators suspected they were to us it to claim ransom from the victim’s families.
There were also several phone calls made among the suspects before, during and after the kidnapping “operation.”
Forensic Analysis
Detective Sergeant Sylvester Essel, a forensic analyst with the Ghana Police Service who carried out the forensic examination on some mobile phones confiscated, made the revelation at an Accra high court where three Nigerians and a Ghanaian were standing trial for their involvement in the kidnapping of the girls.
Sampson Aghalor, 28, a computer engineer believed to be the ring leader of the gang; Elvis Ojiyorwe, 28, businessman; and Jeff Omarsa, 29, a tiler—all Nigerians; and their Ghanaian counterpart, YussifYakubu, 29, are facing three counts of conspiracy, kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment at an Accra high court.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
Led in evidence by Winifred Sarpong, a Principal State Attorney, Detective Essel, told the court that forensic examination on a pink iPhone labeled ‘Sampson Aghalor’ had pictures of the two ladies who were sitting down with their hands tied at their backs.
He told the court that copies of the said pictures on the mobile phone had been reproduced in the report which was tendered as an exhibit in the trial.
8 Visa Accounts
The witness told the court that a further analysis on the pink iPhone revealed that it was used to create eight different Visa accounts on June 11, 2019, just a day before the suspects were arrested.
He said the accounts were created using [email protected] on the iPhone which was connected to the hotspot of a Vivo phone which was among the mobiles phones that were confiscated from the suspects.
The witness added that other accounts that were used to create the Visa accounts included Apple ID, iDMS account device, CloudKit, device location account, Find My Friends Account, iCloud Account and iMessages.
Linked Phone Calls
Detective Essel also told the court that his forensic examination revealed that there were multiple phone calls between the mobile phones he analysed.
He revealed that Mr. Aghalor and Mr. Yakubu had communicated 133 times using their Infinix and Vivo mobile phones through two contacts saved as ‘Tools’ and ‘Toolz2’.
Again, he said his analysis revealed that Mr. Aghalor and Mr. Omarsa had communicated 193 times via a number saved as PA-GH on the Vivo phone analyzed.
He added that an analysis of the Vivo phone belonging to Mr. Aghalor had recorded 84 call logs with an unidentified Nokia phone via a number saved as Mansion-GH.
Case Facts
An all-Ghanaian security operation led by the National Security on June 12, 2019 rescued the two Canadian ladies who were abducted from the gates of their hostel in a Kumasi suburb the previous month.
The suspects allegedly kidnapped their victims and kept them in an uncompleted building on the outskirts of town and demanded a ransom of $800,000.
They were said to have also touched the ladies inappropriately and threatened to have sex with them.
According to court documents, the accused persons in a bid to get the victims’ parents to pay the ransom, smeared the victims with the blood of a fowl, took pictures of them and forwarded them to their parents.
The kidnapping of the two ladies sparked public outrage in early June 2019 and a National Security operation led to the dramatic release of both ladies and subsequent arrests of eight suspects on June 12, 2019.
Four out of the eight persons who were initially arrested in connection with the kidnapping were discharged as the prosecution decided to drop all charges against them after reviewing the investigations.
The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo had adjourned the case to March 29 for the witness to continue his evidence in chief.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
