The continuous meting out of instant justice by the public to suspected criminals has landed eight persons from Kojo Ashong, a village near Amasaman in the Ga West District, into prison custody. The eight were picked up by the Amasaman police on Friday, September 21 at dawn when they attempted to kill three men they suspected to be murderers. The suspects who have been remanded into prison custody to reappear on October 11 this year by the Adjabeng magistrate court chaired by Ms. Kokuvi Tay are Aheto Kpelogo (36), Edward Yartey (46), Joseph Quartey (50) and Felix Boamah (20). The rest are Kudjo Kpelogo (26), Stephen Dodzi (28) and Kalsum Bawah (27). The Heritage said it learnt from the crime officer of the Amasaman police station, ASP Emmanuel Osei, that on September 21, this year, at around 2am, the victims, namely Solomon Otu, Isaac Okyere and Collins Olaga were returning from Asamankese where they went to cart lumber to Accra in a taxi cab with registration number GR4007D. The victims who are all dealers in wood, accompanied their goods which were in a KIA cargo truck. On reaching Kojo Ashong, a village near Amasaman, they were stopped by the regional forestry task force who were on the look-out for illegal loggers. While there, ASP Osei said, suspects Kudjo Kpelogo, and Stephen Dodzi met them and ran back to the village and raised the alarm that Collins, Solomon and Isaac were murderers. Aheto Kpelogo, Edward Yartey, Joseph Sackey, Felix Boamah, Daniel Quartey and five others yet to be arrested took a gun, followed up to where the victims' car was parked and riddled it with bullets but failed to hit the victims. When they realized that their first action could not get them the intended result, the suspects went on to vandalize the car and, in the process, brutalized the occupants, tied them up with a rope before leading them to the chiefs palace. The suspects also took four mobile phones and cash 14.6 million cedis belonging to the victims. From the chiefs palace, the suspects marched the victims to the banks of River Densu which passes through the village where they intended to kill the victims before dumping their bodies into the river. However, on their way to the river side, a Good Samaritan who saw them called the assemblyman of the area, Nii Emmanuel Aryee, who also ran to the village and, upon seeing the situation, rang the Amasaman police for help. Mr. Osei said, when the case was reported to the police at around 4:00 am, the police quickly mobilized forces and moved to the scene to effect the arrest of the eight suspects and rescued the victims. According to the crime officer, the victims who sustained various degrees of injury were sent to the hospital where they have since been treated and discharged. The suspects on the other hand, were arraigned before court on the holding charges of publishing news with the intent to cause fear and alarm to the public, conspiracy to commit crime, to wit murder, causing unlawful damage, stealing and attempted murder. Meanwhile, ASP Osei has commended the assemblyman for Onyasana for alerting the police on time to effect the arrest of the suspects. He appealed to other assemblymen to cooperate with the police to combat crime within their areas. He said, if all assemblymen behaved like Nii Aryee, the crime wave within the Ga West district and Amasaman specifically, would reduce. Source: The Heritage