Kwadwo Ampratwum and some of items retrieved
KWADWO AMPRATWUM, a 46-year-old blacksmith who is said to be illegally producing and selling dangerous firearms to highway robbers and some Chinese expatriates at Wamase near Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, is currently in prison custody pending further investigations into the allegation.
With collaboration with criminal gangs in the region, the accused person has been the supply source of assorted firearms, producing at least six guns a week.
He was busily manufacturing several firearms, gun parts and equipment when police personnel from Obuasi raided his workshop at his Wamase base.
He was remanded into prison custody by a Circuit Court in Obuasi which did not take his plea to the charge of manufacturing firearms without authority, contrary to section 192, and would re-appear on May 29, 2013, to continue his trial.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Emmanuel Kumi told the court presided over by Gilbert Ayisi Addo that on May 13, 2013, at about 11:30am, the police, acting upon a tipoff, stormed the workshop of Kwadwo Ampratwum.
According to him, the blacksmith was found busily manufacturing firearms, which he sold to suspected highway robbers and some Chinese nationals.
Inspector Kumi said the police retrieved four cap guns, four gun engines, a set of gun butt embossment numerals, one cartridge and a sand paper from the gun manufacturing workshop of the accused person.
Ampratwum was also caught fabricating gun spare parts inside the workshop at Wamase, prosecution added.
The Obuasi Municipal Police Commander, DSP Mathew Asante, said that the arrest of the suspect and the seizure of the guns and gun parts would reduce the supply of illegally manufactured arms in the country.
According to him, since these arms were acquired illegitimately, they were normally used for illegal activities including violent crimes.
?The manufacturing of guns goes a long way to strengthen the activities of criminal elements and this raid is a step towards restricting firearms possession by individuals who might resort to their use based on least provocation,? the police commander stated.
He revealed that illegal possession of firearms was a first-degree felony, which meant that the law took it seriously.
DSP Asante emphasized that the raid was also conducted as part of their campaign against loose firearms in the region in dealing with violent crimes.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
