The two soldiers and an Immigration Officer who failed to appear before the Sunyani High Court on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 to answer charges of robbery, kidnapping, dishonestly receiving and abduction, have been remanded in prison custody. The military men, Staff Sergeant Hayford Ofori, with service number 1845165; Sergeant Christian Amoateng with number 188172, both stationed at the Third Battalion of Infantry (3BN) in Sunyani and the Immigration Officer, James Annorhene, with number 1l634 and sta¬tioned at Nkrankwanta, near Dormaa Ahenkro, pleaded not guilty to the charges and were remanded by the judge to reappear in court on May 28, 2012. When the security men refused to appear before the court last Tuesday for no apparent reason, the court is¬sued a bench warrant for their arrest. Mr Justice Ofosu-Kwate refused an application for bail by counsel for the accused persons and said that se¬curity personnel who were alleged to have come into con¬flict with the law ought to be treated just like any other Ghanaian. According to a court official, the three officers first reported themselves to the regional police headquarters and after their statements had been taken, they were charged with the offence. The court, presided over by Mr Justice Ofosu-Kwate, had already remanded Kwasi Asante, a Cocoa Purchasing Clerk (PC) and stationed at Nkrankwanta, an accomplice of the security officers, in prison custody, and granted bail to two other persons jointly charged with them. They were: Hayford Sakyi Bediako, the District Officer of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) at Nkrankwanta, and David Asante Gyamfi, an Accountant of the PBC also at Nkrankwanta. Bediako and Gyamfi, who together with the PC had pleaded not guilty to the charges, were admitted to GH¢100,000.00 bail with three sureties each, two of which were to be justified. The security men, who were allegedly armed and in the company of Asante, were also alleged to have arrested the complainant in the case and handcuffed him to a cocoa tree at Kwabenakrom in La Cote d’ Ivoire and later took him to Nkrankwanta. The facts of the case as presented by Mrs Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, a Principal State Attorney, were that the complainant in the case, Mr Mahama Issah, is a farmer at Ameyawkrom, near Nkrankwanta, while Asante is a purchasing clerk with the PBC at Krakrom, near Nkrankwanta. According to the Principal State Attorney, Bediako and Gyamfi were both with the PBC and in charge of the Nkrankwanta Cocoa District, while Asante and the com¬plainant were cocoa transacting business associates. In February 2011, Asante allegedly advanced to Mr Issah, GH¢37, 200.00 to purchase 186 bags of cocoa beans for him. After the complainant collected the money, he delayed the supply of the bags of cocoa to Asante but on April 15, 2011, the complainant arranged 300 bags of cocoa beans from Dame in the Ivory Coast and conveyed them to Kwabenakrom and informed Asante to come over and in¬spect them. The prosecutor added that upon receipt of the information, Asante proceeded to Kwabenakromand after inspecting the cocoa, expressed interest but told the complainant that he did not have enough money to pay for the 300 bags. He, therefore, decided to return to Nkrankwanta to source more funds. According to the Principal State Attorney, the complainant obliged and Asante left but surprisingly, he returned to Kwabenakrom in the company of Annorhene, Staff Sergeant Ofori, and Sergeant Amoateng, who arrested Mr Issah, after he was identified by Asante as the owner of the said cocoa beans. She said the cocoa was then loaded into three KIA trucks and brought to Nkrankwanta, together with the complainant, who was allegedly detained in a wooden structure at the Customs checkpoint at Nkrankwanta. His brother, Mr Abubakari Issah, was asked by the fifth accused to pay GH¢8, 000.00 to the accountant. He obliged and the complainant was released. The prosecutor indicated that the matter was then reported to the Prefect of Dame, who also made another report to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Dormaa, after which he set up a committee to look into the matter but the accused did not co-operate with the committee. Subsequently, the case was reported to the police and after their investigations, the docket was sent to the Attorney-General’s Office in Sunyani, where the police were directed to charge the accused with the offence.