Dr George Akuffo Dampare served as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) from June 2021 to March 2025 when he was fired by President John Dramani Mahama. His appointment as IGP was met with much excitement as expectations were rife that he was going to deal ruthlessly with crime in the country.
Many Ghanaians believed that, based on his past records and capabilities, Dr Dampare could effectively combat crime and resolve major cases, including the unsolved murder cases of high-profile personalities.
However, these expectations were not met as years passed, with justice seemingly eluding the families of victims in several unsolved cases, while suspects remained at large.
Here are some major crimes that happened under the former IGP.
1. Obuasi killings
Hell broke loose at Obuasi, one of Ghana’s major mining communities in the Ashanti Region, on Sunday, January 19, 2025, when personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces clashed with some youth in the area.
For hours, the mining community was like a war zone, with gunshots ringing throughout the community as personnel of the army battled with the youth, who were believed to be small-scale miners.
The incident reportedly occurred after a group of small-scale miners reportedly besieged the mines of AngloGold Ashanti resulting in the deaths of 8 people all of them being small-scale miners.
The case was left unsolved despite a directive from President John Dramani Mahama for an investigation into the incident.
The case is still left open with no arrest made yet.
2. Adabraka jewellery shop heist
In November 2024, a robbery heist occurred at a jewellery shop in Adabraka, a suburb of Accra. The robbers fully armed with rifles stormed the shop in broad daylight and immediately opened fire to scare away people around the vicinity.
The victims were captured in footage loading sacks, reportedly filled with cash, into a parked saloon car. However, just moments after the car began moving, a 4×4 vehicle abruptly blocked its path.
Masked armed men with AK-47 rifles and other firearms emerged from the 4×4 and attacked the driver and a passenger, seizing all the sacks of cash from the car.
Despite a police manhunt for the perpetrators, arrests have since yet to be made.
3. Bullion van robberies
In 2021, a disturbing wave of bullion van robberies swept across several parts of the country, creating widespread fear and panic, particularly among financial institutions and the general public.
Many of these robberies resulted in the tragic deaths of police officers in isolated incidents, with some cases remaining unsolved.
Notable incidents included robberies in areas such as James Town, Adansi Fomena, Spintex Road Baatsona, the Accra-Winneba highway, and an unsuccessful attempt at the North Kaneshie Industrial Area in Accra.
In some of these robberies, intelligence-led operations at the highest level revealed that some rogue police officers were the masterminds behind a number of these crimes. In 2022, two of the police officers implicated in the robberies were shot dead.
4. Lapaz Forex Bureau Robbery
In November 2024, armed robbers attacked a forex bureau at Abeka Lapaz in Accra. The owner of Rahama Forex Bureau, Samuel Addai, giving his account of the attempted robbery said he received a distress call around 11:05 in the morning from his employees, alerting him of the ongoing heist at the facility.
He said he alerted the police, who quickly surrounded the establishment in a bid to arrest the suspects.
The suspects fled the scene, unable to make away with valuables due to the police’s arrival.
5. MoMo robberies
An alarming trend of robberies and murders of Mobile Money operators surfaced across various parts of the country.
In 2025 alone, about three recorded attacks have been reported in the Ashanti Region involving a 25-year-old Mobile Money vendor known as Junior who was found murdered in his room at the Kwadaso Onion Market in Kumasi.
His assailants brutally killed him by slitting his throat with a weapon suspected to be a cutlass or a similar sharp object.
They also tied his hands and legs to the bed and sealed his mouth with duct tape.
The robbers are reported to have bolted with a significant amount of money.
In Krofrom, a 27-year-old MoMo vendor, Patricia Nimako, also met her untimely death in February when she was robbed, shot, and killed by unknown assailants at her shop.
The robbers bolted with GH¢10,000 and some mobile phones.
Another victim at Manso-Asamang, a 33-year-old Mobile Money vendor, was tragically murdered by robbers at Manso-Asamang.
The deceased, Augustine Mensah, was attacked in February while returning home from work after completing a transaction at a customer’s house.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
