Kinsley Ofosu, the sole survivor of the prominent Deadly Voyage stowaway anecdote in 1992, has been apprehended for his involvement in an alleged €120,000 fraud.
The suspect, who made global headlines in 1992 with his miraculous survival from a stowaway journey, was apprehended from his hideout at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region after various pursuits by the police over two and half decades panned out futile.
After 26 years of relentless attempts, the police apprehended Ofosu on Saturday, October 14.
He was thereafter put before the Takoradi Circuit Court B.
Prosecutor, Inspector Robert Yawson divulged to the court headed over by Her Honour Henrietta Charway that the suspect has been on the police wanted list since 1998.
He implied that all efforts to have him apprehended have not been successful.
He prayed the court to remand the suspect to enable the police to conclude their inquiries.
According to the prosecution, the suspect has vacated his abode in Tanokrom, a suburb of Takoradi, to a secret place, making it tough for the police to trace him.
He asserted that the suspect might impede the investigations if he should be granted bail and, therefore, implored for a remand.
The lawyer for the accused Victor Owusu requested for his client to be granted bail was not granted.
The indicted individual has, therefore, been remanded into police detention to reappear on Monday, October 30.
Plaintiff Charles Ohemeng divulged to Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson, the host of Tarkoradi-based radio station Connect FM’s Omanbapa morning show, via a telephone interrogation from Germany that he met the accused in Germany in 1997 after he made global headlines following his miraculous escape from MC Ruby Cargo Ship.
He adds that the accused had become well-known at the time due to the stowaway incident.
“He was famous and everyone was talking about him. They had given him legal documents and so he was moving from Europe to Ghana anytime he wanted. I met him in Germany in 1997 and decided to ship some vehicles and printing machines through him to Ghana. He agreed and we started buying the vehicles. I bought a Mercedes Benz, tanker, Nissan, double axle vehicle, Opel, printing machines, and many others amounting to about 240,000 Deutschmark (an equivalent of 120,000 Euros) at the time.
“I shipped them to him in Ghana and that was the end of everything. I did not hear from him again until his detention today,” he implied.
Flashback
In 1992, Kingsley Ofosu made global headlines after he made it through the massacre of a group of African stowaways by the crew of a Bahamian-flagged Ukrainian-crewed cargo ship, MC Rugby.
The ship was docked in Takoradi to load cocoa. The stowaways had aimed to relocate to Europe for a finer life.
After hiding in the vessel for some days, they came across another stowaway who was on the ship from Cameroon.
They were later found by crew members of the ship who decided to slay them one after the other.
In all, Kinsley Ofosu’s half-brother, Albert Cudjoe, who was on the ship together with seven others, was gruesomely slain. Kinsley Ofosu was the only survivor. The pathetic saga of Ofosu was dramatized in a 1996 motion picture titled ‘Deadly Voyage’.
The movie was produced by Union Pictures and distributed to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Home Box Office (HBO). Actor Omar Epps played the character of Kingsley Ofosu.
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