Ashanti Region: Four remanded over alleged sexual assault and gold robbery

The Nsuta Circuit Court in the Sekyere Central District of the Ashanti Region has remanded four individuals in connection with an alleged armed robbery and the rape of a police officer at gunpoint.

The accused, who appeared before the court this week, have been identified as 30-year-old Issah Musah, a tailor; 33-year-old Clinton Mawuli Ashirow, an alluvial miner; 33-year-old Duker Prince, a mobile money vendor and former military officer; and 25-year-old Wilfred Quansah, a student. All four have been remanded into custody pending further investigations into the case.

According to details before the court, the incident at the centre of the case occurred on the night of August 12, 2026, at about 10:30 p.m., when the policewoman, who is stationed at the Offinso Divisional Police Command, was returning home after completing her duty shift.

It was during this journey that she was allegedly confronted and assaulted at gunpoint, an ordeal that has since drawn the attention of both the police service and the wider public given the victim’s profile as a serving officer.

Investigations into the matter reportedly led police to Issah Musah, who was arrested at DePaul in Offinso on August 18, 2026.

Musah is said to be one of seven members of an armed robbery gang accused of carrying out a string of attacks on gold shops and mining sites across three regions of the country.

The gang’s alleged targets span Manso in the Ashanti Region; Diaso, Ayanfuri and Assin Kusha in the Central Region; and Wassa Akropong in the Western North Region, a geographic spread that prosecutors say points to a coordinated and sustained criminal operation targeting the country’s gold trade.

The prosecution told the court that Musah was recruited into the gang by one Seidu Salifu, who has since died.

Salifu’s death means investigators are unable to question him directly about the extent of the gang’s activities or his role in organising them, though prosecutors appear to be relying on other gang members, including those now before the court, to piece together the group’s operations.

Among the incidents the prosecution linked to the gang was an attack on a gold merchant’s shop at Diaso on January 28, 2026.

According to the court, Musah and six other members of the gang stormed the shop that day, with five of the attackers allegedly armed with AK-47 rifles.

The raid reportedly netted the gang gold valued at GH¢20 million, one of the most significant single hauls attributed to the group so far.

The case brings together two serious strands of alleged criminal conduct: a violent sexual assault on a serving police officer and a wider pattern of armed robberies targeting the gold sector that prosecutors appear to be treating as connected through the accused persons now before the Nsuta Circuit Court.

As it stands, all four suspects remain in custody, with investigations into the full extent of the gang’s activities and the network’s remaining members said to be ongoing.