Theft of GOIL coupons - 2 To be tried in absentia

December 7, 2007 (Page 3)
Story: Mabel Aku Baneseh
TWO of the seven persons who allegedly stole Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) fuel coupons worth ¢9.1 billion and are currently on the run will be tried in absentia even if they do not show up to answer the charges levelled against them.
Edem Gasu and Sylvester Asimenu, both machine operators at Camelot Ghana Limited, printers of the coupons, have been charged with conspiracy and stealing.
The other accused persons in the case are Emmanuel Amegashie, 45, Production Technician of Camelot Ghana Limited; Lawrence Avorgbedor, 24, former employee of Camelot Ghana Limited; Joshua Kwamina Asamoah, 30, a taxi driver; Samuel Kofi Addo, 43, a former fuel pump attendant at the Dansoman GOIL Filling Station, and Ebenezer Charway, 24, a machine operator at Camelot Ghana Limited.
Amegashie, Avorgbedor, Asamoah, Addo and Gasu were yesterday arraigned before the Accra Fast Track High Court after they had been discharged at the circuit court in Accra on Wednesday at the instance of the prosecution.
The accused persons have been charged with conspiracy and stealing. Their pleas have not been taken.
Amegashie, Avorgbedor, Asamoah and Addo were remanded to appear again on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.
Gasu was not remanded because he was on police enquiry bail. Hearing is expected to commence on the next adjourned date.
At the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, a Principal State Attorney, Mr William Kpobi, said the Constitution required that a notice should be posted at the last place of abode of the two accused persons who are on the run for two weeks, after which the trial would commence.
But counsel for the other accused persons disagreed and said their clients should not be made to suffer because of the absence of the two accused persons.
The police have since seized two vehicles, a BMW saloon car and a Toyota Four Runner, belonging to Avorgbedor, and a KIA saloon car belonging to Asamoah.
Initial investigations revealed that Amegashie, who was also in charge of Quality Control, Plant, Equipment and Electrical Maintenance, allegedly went into the hologram vault room and stole more than 30,000 leaflets of the GH¢20 and GH¢15 denominations of the fuel coupons and gave them to Avorgbedor for sale.
Avorgbedor then printed serial numbers on the coupons and gave them to Asamoah, who in turn gave them to Addo for sale.
The facts of the case are that Amegashie was caught on camera carrying the items out of the Hologram and Micro Numbering Vault rooms of Camelot Ghana Limited.
According to the prosecution, Addo began selling the stolen coupons after he had been contracted by Asamoah to do so and later resigned as a fuel station attendant to sell the coupons full-time.
The prosecution stated that the Audit Department of GOIL later detected that the serial numbers printed on the coupons were different from the genuine coupons. It then alerted the other filling stations to be on the look out, and on October 30, 2007, Addo was arrested at the Dansoman GOIL Filling Station when he went there to sell the coupons.
Addo’s arrest eventually led to the arrest of the other accused persons.