4 Jailed For Stealing Cooking Oil

The four convicts and a suspect at the court yesterday. THE ASHAIMAN Circuit court, presided by Tsatsu Yao Azuma, has sentenced four persons including two security men from SecPoint, a security firm, to 2 years imprisonment each with hard labour.

They were sentenced for their involvement in the theft of 64 jericans of Florina pure cooking oil from the warehouse of Delta Agro Limited, located at Tema Industrial Area.

The four namely, Moses Gamoh, 41, Vincent Kumah, 26, Christopher Kudor, 24 and Kelvin Feati Selasi, 21, all pleaded guilty.

The Industrial Patrol team from Kpone on the dawn of May 17, chanced upon Kelvin Feati, one of the accused with some jericans of the Florina pure cooking oil, at Ashaiman Newtown, and after interrogation by the team, he admitted to stealing the oil from the Delta Agro limited in Tema.

Kelvin was reported to have told the team during interrogation that he was on his way to sell some of the oil so he could raise enough money to transport the rest to a point where he and his colleagues would sell the oil.

He later mentioned Moses, Vincent, Christopher and one Philip, now on the run, as his accomplices and led the patrol team to the premises of Delta limited where they were picked up and later sent to the Kpone Police station for questioning, after which they were detained.

Kelvin later explained to the police during investigations that he usually used an opening in the ceiling of the ware house which enabled him to gain access to the oil stored, adding that with that style, it was difficult for anyone to detect where the thieves used as their entry point.

Continuing, he said he and two other casual security men of the company joined two security men from SecPoint to steal the oil and intended to share the proceeds they would have gained after selling the oil.

During investigations, all four, except Kelvin, admitted to the offences of conspiracy and stealing, and were subsequently arraigned before the Ashaiman Circuit court on May 19, 2009.

The fifth accused, Joseph Muniru, who pleaded not guilty, was remanded into prison custody to reappear before the court on June 9, 2009.

Susana Adjei-Addo, Human Resource Manager of Delta, later in an interview, explained that theft was one of the major problems they were facing at their warehouse. She explained that before the arrest, there had been some theft of oil at the warehouse; a situation which she said was very worrying. She also mentioned that somewhere last year, two armed robbers attacked the factory and made away with GH¢18,230 from a mini safe in the Managing Director's office, $600 which was in a wallet of the MD, left on his desk, and GH¢230 from some staff of the company.

She appealed to the security agencies, especially the patrol team, to intensify their patrol around the industrial area so as to avoid the continuous attack on factories located in the area.

When this paper contacted the office of SecPoint, now G4, for confirmation of the accused as their workers, they declined to speak but rather asked the paper to come over to their offices. Subsequently, when this reporter explained that the call was only for them to confirm or deny if the sentenced persons were the company's employees, a man who was put on the line was rather rude and chose to hang up.

From Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar, Ashaiman