International security analyst Adam Bonaa, has described the GhC 20,000 bounty on the heads of the bullion van robbers as woefully inadequate since the police have no idea how much money was robbed from the van.
He said the bounty would have served a useful purpose if the police did their background checks before announcing the amount.
To him, the attack on the van smacks of an organized crime in the way they went about it and until the police found out exactly how much was stolen from the van, the amount put out for information will serve no purpose in nabbing them.
Mr Bonaa pointed out that if the armed robbers stole more money that the GHC20,000 bounty won’t amount to even 10% of what was stolen then it will be woefully inadequate to bring them to book.
He drew the point that what usually gives criminals out is the sharing ratio after the heist. In terms of the money, if the sharing does not go on well between them, the weight of the bounty can induce a member who didn’t get his ‘lion share’ may decide to snitch to the police to claim the bounty.
But in this case, if the police don’t know how much was stolen from the bullion van, then it will be woefully inadequate that the GHC20,000 will serve any purpose in helping to nab the culprits.
He made this revelation in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, June 17.
Mr Bonaa was speaking on the heels of the flagrant attack on a bullion van in Adedenkpo near Jamestown resulting in the death of a police officer and a trader. The Inspector General of Police(IGP) James Oppong-Boanuh has put out a GHC20,000 bounty for any information that can lead to the arrest of the armed robbers.
“Somehow the bounties would have helped if we were probably doing a proper analysis of what we want to achieve before putting out the bounty. I have seen that 20,000 bounty is on the head of the robbers, to bring information for 20,000, my reaction that a bounty is good but 20,000 is woefully inadequate. First of all, these guys had an AK47, these guys came in, I think six of them, we are told, they came well organized. This looks like an organized crime, as we speak we don’t even know how much money was taken from the bullion van. If assuming they took 200,000, that is 10% of what they took, what gives criminals out is the sharing ratio, who gets the lion share, if it’s organized crime, the boss is sitting somewhere and if the amount of money involved is 200 or 250, he gives the guy guarding the yard 5000, you take this, you take this, he takes maybe 100,000.
“So assuming without admitting that maybe they took 200,000 and the bounty maybe was 150,000 for whoever brings information, what happens is that if the sharing ratio didn’t go well one of them who feels that: I can also be boss, I can get this money and get myself some small kiosk or small land to start my life or even move away from Accra, will quickly run, chances are that, come and give you credible information that will lead to the apprehension of these culprits”.
Mr Bonaa said if the bounty cannot warrant such risk of giving credible information for a handsome reward such bounties will serve no fruitful purpose.
By Barima Kwabena Yeboah|3news.com|Ghana