Reports reaching DAYBREAK indicate that the Police Detective Sergeant (D/Sgt) who levelled bribery allegation against his military Officer Commanding (OC) has absconded from camp.
His absence without leave (AWOL) status was noted whilst he was being interrogated by security agencies, together with the officer in charge of the Obuasi headquarters of Operation Vanguard.
In our previous edition, we ran a story on a petition from a police officer within Operation Vanguard lamenting corruption within the leadership of the police-cum-military task force.
In that petition dated January 23, 2020, filed by 34093 D/Sgt David Dzokoto copied to the Commanding Officer of Operation Vanguard, Obuasi and the Chairman, Inter-Ministerial Committee of Illegal Mining, Jubilee House, the police officer, in a litany of embarrassing accusations, fingers Captain Avorxe as the ringleader in the subversive act.
Following the allegation, the policeman was withdrawn from Ayanfuri to Obuasi, pending further investigation into the claim
Our dependable security sources hinted that a few days ago, the military Captain and the detective were put before a panel at Obuasi for interrogation
Meanwhile, on standby, was a team of armed personnel to transport the two men to Accra for further investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Military Police of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) where applicable.
The cop, D/Sgt Dzokoto was asked by the panel if he knew the Captain present with him and he answered in the affirmative, affirming that he was his Officer Commanding.
Again, he was asked if the same Officer before him was the same person he levelled the accusation against. He, however, reportedly stated that the allegation was against Captain Avorxe, but not Captain Avorxe W (William).
He then allegedly reported that he did not know that the petition was going to create such a big problem.
In a spell of a moment, D/Sgt Dzokoto was said to have absconded and could not be located till now.
Further information gathered has it that D/Sgt Dzokoto reportedly called the Police Director of Operations from his hideout, giving reasons for his disappearance and explaining that his life was in danger.
Meanwhile, Captain Avorxe has been withdrawn from the Operation Vanguard back to Accra.
Find below the full petition in which the cop nailed the military officer.
PETITION AGAINST AN ILLEGAL DUTY BEING PERFORMED BY MEN ON VANGUARD DUTY 15 BUT NOT VANGUARD OPERATIONAL DUTIES
Sir, I am humbly petitioning your office about an illegal duty that we the men who were deployed by the government of Ghana to stop the illegal mining activities within part of the country.
Since our arrival at the central FOB, Ayanfuri on 30th December, 2019 at 21:00 hours, our leadership been headed by Captain Avorxe, has been detailing the men, mostly police to a guard duty at Perseurs Mining Company, a private entity situated at Ayanfuri. My investigations revealed that the company pays an amount of forty five thousand Ghana cedis every two weeks to the command without the knowledge of the personnel performing such duty and such amount has never been accounted for the government of Ghana. Further investigations revealed that, such money is only pocketed by the commander and his cronies.
Sir, since the duties started from day one, including patrol duties, it has been established that some parts of the central region has been allocated to the commander and some of the senior military officers as a concessions which they don’t allow an arrest to be effected there. Whenever men goes there to perform legally sanctioned duty by the government, the military officers in charge of such term always obstruct men on duty that “O.C instructed that we should not arrest them”. Meaning that such places are for him or he has collected money from the illegal miners. And this has been happening since vanguard fifteen started at the central FOB.
Just behind the camp that houses the men at central FOB, there has been sounds of machines suspected to be that of chanfans-a machine used by illegal miners for mining, so been an investigator, I went to find out and to my outer dismay, I met over hundred people with twenty five chanfans working in an illegal mining pit and when I confronted them, one FiFi who claimed to be their leader informed me that they have been paying an amount of five hundred Ghana cedis per machine, totaling twelve thousand and five five hundred cedis weekly to the commander. I informed my senior officers about it and as at now, the illegal mining is ongoing there, just in the nose of the vanguard personnel been headed by Captain Avorxe who instructed earlier that no personnel should affect any arrest without his instruction, hence the continuation of the illegality as the command has been collecting money from the illegal miners.
Sir, some of us are not comfortable with such happenings as it is tantamount to financial loss to the state and abetment of crime to wit illegal mining so I want to draw this to your attention.
Thanks
DAVID DZOKOTO
Through:
The Officer Commanding
Central FOB
To:
Commanding Officer
Operation Vanguard
Obuasi
Info:
Chairman: Inter Ministerial Committee On Illegal Mining
Jubilee House
