Kinsley Ofosu, the sole survivor of the famous Deadly Voyage stowaway story in 1992, has been arrested for his involvement in an alleged €120,000 scam.
The suspect, who made international headlines in 1992 with his miraculous survival from a stowaway trip, was arrested from his hideout at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region after various searches by the police over 26 years proved futile.
After almost two-and-a-half decades of relentless efforts, the police arrested Ofosu on Saturday, October 14.
He was subsequently arraigned before the Takoradi Circuit Court B.
Prosecuting, Inspector Robert Yawson told the court presided over by Her Honour Henrietta Charway that the suspect has been on the police wanted list since 1998.
He added that all efforts to have him arrested have not been successful.
He prayed the court to remand the suspect to enable the police to conclude their investigations.
According to the prosecution, the suspect has vacated his residence in Tanokrom, a suburb of Takoradi, to an unknown location, making it difficult for the police to trace him.
He argued that the suspect might interfere in the investigations if he should be granted bail and, therefore, prayed for a remand.
Counsel for the accused Victor Owusu’s plea for his client to be granted bail was not granted.
The accused has, therefore, been remanded into police custody to reappear on Monday, October 30.
Complainant Charles Ohemeng told Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson, the host of Connect FM’s Omanbapa morning show, in a telephone interview from Germany that he met the accused in Germany in 1997 after he made international headline following his miraculous escape from MC Ruby Cargo Ship.
He adds that the accused had become famous 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 arrest today,” he indicated.
In 1992, Kingsley Ofosu made international headlines after he survived the slaughter 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 planned to travel to Europe for a better life.
After hiding in the ship 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 slaughter 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 murdered. Kinsley Ofosu was the only survivor.
The sad story of Ofosu was dramatized in a 1996 film dubbed ‘Deadly Voyage’.
The film was produced by Union Pictures and distributed to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Home Box Office (HBO). Omar Epps starred as Ofosu.
By Eric Nana Gyetuah-3news
