Yaw Asante Agyekum, a motorbike mechanic who was wrongfully jailed in connection with one of Ghana’s most notorious criminal gangs, has provided a disturbing account of how police officers allegedly fabricated evidence to frame him as an armed robber.
In an emotional interview on The Nana Aba Series, Agyekum detailed how law enforcement officials staged photographs with weapons and traditional amulets to create false evidence against him, despite his complete innocence in any criminal activity.
Fabricated evidence and staged photography
Agyekum described the traumatic experience of being forced to pose with weapons he had never handled, explaining how the staged photographs terrorised his family members, who believed the false narrative being constructed around him.
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I will never forget this. I have never held a gun before. I am not an armed robber. But guns were laid before me, and I was given some amulets to wear just to take a photograph to frame me as an armed robber.
That really scared my relatives when they saw the picture, even though the items were not mine
He further revealed the stark contrast between his actual circumstances at the time of arrest and the manufactured evidence presented against him.
According to Agyekum, he was carrying only his motorbike key when apprehended, but police subsequently introduced weapons as props for incriminating photographs.
At the time of my arrest, I was holding only a motorbike key—nothing else. But when they took me to the police station, they placed old guns in front of me and took a photograph to support a false story.
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This was during the time when now-retired Police Commissioner Rose Atinga Bio was at Nkawkaw. Some officers who knew me actually vouched for me, saying I wasn’t a criminal, but others insisted I was an armed robber.
Watch the video below
Connection to notorious criminal gang
Agyekum was arrested in 2002 and subsequently convicted in 2010 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
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The prosecution alleged that he served as a mechanic for the criminal organisation led by Ataa Ayi, a notorious armed robber whose gang terrorised Accra during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Ataa Ayi and his associates were ultimately convicted on multiple robbery charges and received sentences totalling 160 years in prison, reflecting the severity and extent of their criminal activities.
Legal battle and vindication
Despite his conviction, Agyekum maintained his innocence and pursued an appeal through the court system. His legal team argued that the prosecution had failed to establish any credible connection between their client and the crimes attributed to the gang.
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The persistence of his legal challenge ultimately proved successful. On June 5, 2025, the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged Agyekum, who had been serving a 35-year prison sentence.
The appellate court’s decision was based on multiple procedural and evidentiary failures in the original trial.
Significantly, the court determined that Agyekum had been denied adequate legal representation during his initial proceedings, a fundamental violation of his constitutional rights.
Additionally, the Court of Appeal concurred with the defence argument that the prosecution’s case lacked sufficient evidence to support the conviction, effectively acknowledging that the original verdict was built on an inadequate foundation.
