The Tarkwa gold robbery episode has taken a new twist with the Police Administration turning its investigation machinery on the licensed gold dealer, who reported he was robbed in the early hours of Monday of 25 kilogrammes of gold. This followed the suspicion that the story of the victim of the robbery was too ‘sweet’ to be believed at first-hand and so needed further investigations to unravel the circumstances leading to the alleged robbery of the gold worth GH¢1.82 million. The victim, Victor Ali Asherifi, has therefore been transferred from Secondi to the Police Headquarters in Accra to assist in the investigations. A source close to the police headquarters told the Daily Graphic that initial investigations showed that the double-cabin Toyota Tundra pick-up on which Asherifi was travelling was not damaged, while one of the pistols the robbers were said to have used was left in his vehicle. According to the source the police were also surprised that comparing the strength of the Toyota Tundra Pick-up and that of the KIA Pride, Asherifi was not able to chase the robbers to the nearest police check point. It said Asherifi also knew the contact of the police and could have contacted them for escort to Accra, but failed to do so, deciding alone to travel with such an amount of gold in the night. The source said the story of the victim that he tried to swerve from the robbers’ vehicle and ended up almost in a ditch could also not be verified as initial investigations could not locate the exact place, while there was no dent on the vehicle. Besides, some business associates, who are big time gold dealers and who claimed to have paid unspecified amounts of money to Asherifi, had lodged complaints against him at the police headquarters. Asherifi reportedly called the police in Tarkwa in the early hours of Monday and told them he had been robbed of gold worth GH¢1.82 million. This is the second time a case of gold robbery on that stretch of road between Tarkwa and Nswaem in the Western Region has been reported. The first one involved an Indian businessman, who was robbed of gold worth $600,000 after the robbers, who were in a taxi, sprayed pepper into his eyes. The robbers, who included a police accomplice, were later apprehended, tried and jailed. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana