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Two prison officers have appeared in an Accra Circuit Court on charges of assisting Wang Xiao, a Chinese prisoner convicted at Nsawam Medium Prison, to escape.
Joseph Oteng and Sergeant Isaac Boateng Bonsu face charges of conspiracy and aiding escape.
According to reports, the accused correctional officers initially claimed to their superiors that, after a hospital visit, they were approached by a Toyota Vitz car, which then drove away with the convict.
However, CCTV footage from a hotel has exposed them. The footage shows the accused persons escorting the Chinese convict to a hotel to meet his wife in a room.
The convict and his wife purportedly escaped by climbing down the balcony of the room while the officers waited in the hotel reception area.
Both accused officers have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Presided over by Mrs. Afia Owusua Appiah, the court has granted them bail in the sum of GhC100,000 each, with two sureties to be justified. They are scheduled to reappear in court on April 9, 2024.
Chief Inspector Wisdom Alorwu leads the prosecution, stating that the complainant holds the position of the third in command at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, and the accused were serving under his supervision.
The prosecution stated that on February 7, 2024, around 0700 hours, the two officers were assigned to escort Wang Xiao, a Chinese national serving a one-year sentence at Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.
After the convict received treatment from a medical officer at the hospital’s Dental Department, the two accused allegedly agreed to accompany him to the Oceans Hotel in Korle Gonno to meet his wife for a discussion in exchange for a reward of GHC1,000, which they agreed to split.
According to Chief Inspector Alorwu, the accused officers removed the convict’s handcuffs and escorted him to the hotel reception. The second accused, Bonsu, informed the receptionist that they were there to see someone in one of the rooms.
The prosecution further alleged that the two accused then sent the convict to the room, where they met his purported wife, who offered them KFC rice and drink so she could “spend some time alone with her husband.”
Upon returning to the hotel room to contact the convict, the accused discovered that both the convict and his alleged wife had fled through the balcony.
The prosecutor stated that after the convict fled, the accused went to Tema Station Hockey to hide the handcuffs with a witness in the case. They promptly contacted their superiors in Nsawam and informed them that while escorting the convict from the hospital, they were unexpectedly stopped by a yellow and black unregistered Toyota Vitz taxi, and the inmate jumped into the taxi and fled.
The prosecutor mentioned that the accused were interrogated by their superiors at the Prisons National headquarters, who then lodged a formal complaint with the Police on February 13, 2024.
During investigations, the accused led the police to the hotel. Upon reviewing CCTV footage, it was revealed that the convict and his wife had jumped from the balcony of the first-floor building and fled while the accused were relaxing in the reception area after receiving meals from the convict’s wife.
The prosecutor stated that the accused officers only became aware of the prisoner’s escape when the hotel staff alerted them to check on him.
