Enoch Lamptey, the Chief Inspector who assisted nine oth­ers to steal underground cables worth Ghc 700,000.00 belonging to Vodafone Ghana Limited, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for abetment of crime by an Accra Circuit Court, while six of the suspects were freed.

Francis Obiri, the trial judge who sentenced him last Monday with three others -- Kwadwo Gyapong, alias Joe, a scrap dealer; Abubakar Alhassan Damba a Kia truck driv­er and Abass Abubakar Enoch, a scrap dealer -- revealed Inspector Lamptey also tried to stop his colleagues from arresting his accomplices.

Chief Inspector Enoch Lamptey, who was said to have, at a point, been the bodyguard of former President John Agyekum - Kufuor, made the judge wonder the sort of protection he offered the former President.

The trial judge said the police officer "did not live up to the standard required of him as a police officer" and added that cable theft had become rampant these days and needed to stop before it drove investors away.

He sentenced the others to five years on conspiracy to com­mit crime and ten years for steal­ing. All sentences would run con­currently.

Six of the suspects: Laminu Fuseini, Adam Abdallah, Haminu Salifu,Iliasu Abubakar, Yakubu Abdulai and Ohene Tofa, all scrap dealers, were acquitted and dis­charged by the trial judge who said there was not sufficient evi­dence to convict them.

He maintained that the evi­dence that they were hired to offload the cables into the Kia truck was never refuted by any witness or the prosecution, adding that had the six been paid earlier, they would have left the scene.

In addition, he said they could not have known whether or not the cables were stolen as it was not the norm for a person who is hired to carry items to ask whether or not they belonged to the hirer.

The prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Michael Jubiok, told the court that the complainant is the Operations Manager of Vodafone Ghana Limited.

According to him, Lamptey is a police officer stationed at Rail­ways Police Station, adding that seven of the accused persons are scrap dealers living at Agbogloshie while Abubakar Damba is a driver of KIA Rhino with registration number CR 852- 10 and Toffa is a driver's mate.

The prosecutor averred that on July 23, 2013, the police at Achimota Mile 7 received a call from a concerned citizen that the accused persons had stolen a large quantity of Vodafone under­ground cables and loaded them into a Kia truck ready to leave for an unknown destination.

He said the police moved swiftly to the scene and met the accused persons who had the cables in the Kia truck whilst they joined a chain to another under­ground cable and affixed it to the cable to pull it out.

Chief Inspector Jubiok said the suspects were arrested and taken to the Mile 7 Police Station. During investigations, it was revealed that on July 17, 2013, the accused persons stole the cables and managed to escape with them.