Police, Immigration Clash Over ‘Sakawa Boys’

Drama unfolded yesterday at Sakaman Junction in Accra when some armed police personnel physically and verbally challenged some personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service over the arrest of suspected internet fraudsters.

The police reportedly freed the suspects locally known as ‘Sakawa Boys’ after taking custody of them and their laptops from the Immigration officers.

SP Michael Amoako Atta, PRO of the Immigration Service, who confirmed the incident to journalist, said “Around 8:30am, based on intelligence, our officers based on the Weija Command embarked on an operation at a residential apartment at McCarthy Hill.”

He stated that on reaching the premises, they were able to arrest four of the suspects, they were seven in all, three managed to escape. Also, we retrieved seven laptops from them.”

The armed officers from the Odorkor Police station pulled a surprise on the immigration officers and intercepted them on their way to the Immigration Headquarters with the suspects.

The Policemen forcibly freed the suspects, took the seized laptops and reportedly drove off. But this was not without verbal and physical exchanges publicly between the two law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Amoako Attah further explained that; “On their way to the Headquarters with the suspects and the seized laptops, some police officers believed to be stationed at the Odorkor police district intercepted our officers and forcibly freed the suspects from our custody and took over the 7 laptops and drove away with the suspects,” he said. Later, information gathered by citinewsroom.com indicated that the police’s intervention was after one of the suspected internet fraudsters called a police officer on phone.

Three of the four suspects were later returned to the Immigration Service headquarters as investigations continue into the matter.

“As we speak, the hierarchy of the Police Service and the Immigration are in a meeting as to what steps to be taken to unravel what circumstances that led to police coming in to prevent our officers from conducting their lawful mandate,” SP Amoako-Atta said.