Three Jailed 45 Years For Stealing Iron Rods

Three former employees of Iron Birds Company Limited (IBCL), dealers in imported building materials, have been ordered by a Kumasi High Court to serve a total of 45 years in jail for stealing tons of iron rods and other housing construction items.

The items, valued at GH¢2,050,000.00, belongs to the company. Owusu Banahene, Santasi Depot Manager, Nana Akwasi Annor, Administrative Manager, and Philip Danquah Achina would serve jail terms of 20, 15 and 10 years respectively.

They denied charges of conspiracy and stealing. Police Detective, Chief Inspector A.A. Latif told the court, presided over by Mr Justice R.C. Azumah that, the complainant, Kwame Ofosu Agyarko, is the Executive Director of IBCL, and the convicts, ex-employees of the company. In March 2008, it was detected that the company had incurred a
loss of GH¢2,050,000.00, and Annor was instructed to prepare a
statement of account, which he failed to do.

Annor instead vacated his post and went into hiding. Just around
the same time, Banahene also resigned and this heightened his
suspicion that something fraudulent might have happened.
The prosecution said later revelations showed that the three had
diverted and sold tons of the company’s imported iron rods and other
building materials.

Banahene had through the deal, built a house within a record time
of 11 months at Kotwi near Kumasi and established a company, where he
engaged Achina as an accounts officer. Detective Chief Inspector Latif said some of the stolen iron rods were retrieved from the accused by the police.