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Tag: raid

  • Mode of search at ex-BoG governor’s residence legal – Deputy A-G’

    Mode of search at ex-BoG governor’s residence legal – Deputy A-G’

    Deputy Attorney General Dr. Justice Srem Sai has confirmed that the National Security raid on the Roman Ridge residence of former Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Dr. Ernest Addison on March 19 was legally sanctioned by the Attorney General’s Office and conducted with proper warrants.

    During a media engagement on Thursday, March 20, he affirmed, “Every search you see is part of the government’s framework to fight corruption, and we take responsibility for the searches that are happening.”

    He also clarified, “Those searches and the mode in which they were done were carried out in accordance with the law. Warrants were procured, and warrants were used to conduct those searches.”

    In response to concerns raised by the Minority in Parliament over recent raids, the Deputy Minister disclosed that such actions are part of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption during the previous administration.

    Following the raid, the Minority in Parliament accused operatives of stealing GH₵10,000 and jewelry belonging to Dr. Addison’s wife. They condemned the operation as a “Rambo-style approach” and warned that such actions could harm Ghana’s democratic image and deter investors.

    In response, a National Security officer stated that the raid was conducted based on intelligence suggesting that Dr. Addison was in possession of funds belonging to the central bank. They maintained that the operation was lawful, backed by a search warrant, and executed in line with standard procedures.

    As part of their investigative process, operatives also retrieved the hard drive from Dr. Addison’s CCTV system, a move they described as routine. Addressing allegations of theft, an official firmly dismissed the accusations.

    “We did not take any money or jewelry from Dr. Addison’s home. We will, in due course, make public a full list of items retrieved during the search,” the official disclosed.

    This is at least the second time Richard Jakpa has led a group of armed men to raid the home of a high-profile former official from the Akufo-Addo administration since President John Mahama took office on January 7, 2025.

    The first incident involved Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s longest-serving finance minister, whose home in Labone, Accra, was raided by over 15 armed men on February 10.

    The entire operation was recorded by CCTV cameras at the property, and the footage was later released to the public.

    The Majority in Parliament apologized to Ken Ofori-Atta following the raid on his residence by military and police officers.

    According to the Majority, its investigation into the incident revealed that the operation was led by Richard Jakpa, an official at the National Security Coordinator’s office.

    Addressing the issue on the floor of Parliament, Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga described the raid as regrettable, emphasizing that the Mahama government remains committed to protecting the rights of all citizens.

  • West Bank: Palestinian attacker was shot dead after killing an Israeli

    The occupied West Bank has seen an increase in violence as a result of daily Israeli raids, including in Nablus and Jenin.

    According to medics and local media reports, a Palestinian man who shot dead an Israeli settler at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was killed by a security guard.

    The shooting at the checkpoint near the Kiryat Arba settlement, where a group of predominantly right-wing Israeli settlers lives, comes days before Israel holds its fifth election in less than four years and as violence surges in the occupied West Bank.

    Israeli newspaper Haaretz identified the Israeli victim as 49-year-old Ronen Hanania while Palestinian media reported that Mohammad al-Jaabari, a 35-year-old Hebron resident, was killed in the fatal shooting.

    The Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, claimed the slain Hebron gunman as its member.

    Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency response service initially reported five wounded, including a 49-year-old Israeli man left “unconscious with an injury to his upper body”.

    A spokesperson for Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center told the AFP news agency that the man later died of his wounds.

    The other Israelis suffered less severe injuries, the MDA said. A man Palestinian, who was also wounded in the shooting, was being treated at a Hebron area hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

    Israel’s army said “a terrorist shot live fire” near a checkpoint in Hebron, an occupied West Bank city where a community of hardline Jewish settlers lives.

    “Soldiers are conducting searches in the area” for additional suspects, the army said.

    At least three Palestinians, including al-Jaabari’s brother, were arrested from Hebron, according to the Maan news agency.

    Far-right Israeli MP Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism alliance is eyeing major gains in elections on Tuesday, claimed on Twitter that his Hebron home was the target.

    Israel’s security forces have not confirmed the allegation and Israeli media, citing security sources, reported that Ben-Gvir’s home in a Hebron settlement was not targeted.

    ‘Spiral’ of bloodshed

    The United Nations envoy for Middle East peace, Tor Wennesland, warned on Friday that the occupied West Bank was “caught in a downward spiral” of bloodshed. This year is on track to be the deadliest in the territory in more than a decade.

    More than 100 Palestinians, including fighters and attackers but also civilians, have been killed across the occupied West Bank as Israel has conducted near-daily raids.

    The raids intensified following a spate of attacks on Israelis that began in March.

    Israeli operations have primarily been concentrated in the northern occupied West Bank, while Hebron in the south has seen less unrest.

    Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted on Saturday that he was “praying” for those wounded in Kiryat Arba.

    “Terrorism will not defeat us,” said Lapid, who is currently serving as caretaker premier but is hoping to secure an independent mandate in Tuesday’s vote.

    About 475,000 Jewish settlers currently live in the occupied West Bank, in settlements considered illegal by international law, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians.

     

     

  •  Israeli troops kill a Palestinian adolescent in the Jenin incursion

    The Palestinian health ministry says, Salah al-Braiki, 19, was murdered during violent clashes and confrontations following an Israeli army attack on Jenin.

    Ramallah occupied West Bank-Sources indicate that  Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager during a military operation on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

    Salah al-Braiki, 19, was shot in the neck and died shortly afterward at the Jenin public hospital, the Palestinian health ministry reported to Al Jazeera on Friday.

    Al-Braiki was pronounced dead at 1:45 am (22:45 GMT on Thursday), less than an hour after the Israeli army and special forces raided the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, during which confrontations with unarmed youth and intense armed clashes with Palestinian fighters broke out.

    At least three other Palestinians were wounded by Israeli live ammunition, the ministry said.

    Israeli forces also arrested Baraa Alawneh, the cousin of 26-year-old fighter Ahmad Alawneh who was killed by the army during a large raid on Jenin on September 28.

    Tensions in the occupied West Bank have been boiling up since last year, as Palestinian shootings at Israeli military checkpoints and soldiers, particularly in the northern cities of Jenin and Nablus, increased.

    At least three Israeli soldiers have been killed since September 14 – one during a raid on Jenin, and two in separate shootings on military checkpoints last week in Nablus and occupied East Jerusalem.

    As part of a military operation, it calls “Breaking the Wave”, Israel has intensified raids, arrests, and killings in Jenin and Nablus, as Palestinian armed resistance becomes more organised.

    According to local media, the Salem checkpoint north of Jenin has been targeted with at least five shootings by Palestinian fighters since the start of October.

    Israel has imposed a blockade on Nablus and its villages for more than 10 days, affecting the movement of about 420,000 Palestinians as it searches for suspects of a shooting at a nearby illegal settlement of Shavei Shomron in which one soldier was killed.

    Residents, political groups, and civil society institutions are demanding the lifting of the siege as it begins to have a serious effect on the economy and life in the area.

    According to the health ministry, Israeli forces have killed 175 Palestinians since the start of the year, including 124 people in the West Bank, and 51 in the besieged Gaza Strip. Approximately half of those killed in the West Bank was from Jenin and its villages.

    The total death toll also includes 41 children, 17 of whom were killed during Israel’s three-day assault on Gaza in August.

    The United Nations has said that 2022 “is the highest year for Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank, compared to the same period in the previous 16 years”.

     

     

  • Nigeria’s anti-drug agency in mistaken identification raid

    The Nigerian anti-drug agency has apologised to a man in the central state of Plateau after its officers accidentally searched his home while looking for a suspected drug dealer.

    Armed operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested Alyasa’u Idris after breaking into his home in a predawn raid on Thursday.

    But it turned out to be the wrong target.

    Mr Idris, 42, said he initially thought his house was being attacked by kidnappers because kidnappings for ransom are rampant in the country. He then hid inside the ceiling but was pulled out by the officers who broke into the ceiling, he said.

    The incident happened in the town of Yelwan-Shendam.

    The officers interrogated the man after taking him away – but they then realised he was not the person they were looking for.

    He said upon returning home after being released, he found his 500,000 Naira ($1,145; £1,010) was missing.

    Mr Idris, a mattress dealer, told the BBC that his entire family was traumatised by the experience and that all his four wives were taken to hospital because of the psychological impact.

    A spokesperson for the anti-drug agency Femi Babafemi told the BBC that its officers had immediately apologized to the man after realizing it was a case of mistaken identity.

    Mr Babafemi said the victim should write a formal complaint to the agency for investigation on the claims of missing money and demand for compensation.

     

  • Alisher Usmanov: Yacht of Russian oligarch raided by German police

    A yacht associated with a Russian oligarch has been searched by investigators as part of a money laundering investigation. The yacht is the largest recreational boat in the world in terms of tonnage.

    More than 60 police officers raided a luxury yacht in northern Germany tied to a Russian businessman accused of breaching sanctions and money laundering, Frankfurt prosecutors said Tuesday.

    Authorities identified the suspect only as a 69-year-old Russian businessman but did say he was the target of the same investigation last week.

    At that time, police raided a lakeside villa registered to Alisher Usmanov — a close ally of Vladimir Putin’s. They also searched 24 other properties connected to him in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein.

    Prosecutors say they are investigating the funneling of several million euros acquired in illegal activities, including tax evasion. In a statement, they said this involved an “extensive and complex network of companies and corporations.”

    They said the yacht raid was also carried out to comply with a request for help from the US Justice Department, which has launched a probe of its own.

    In a statement on Monday, representatives of Usmanov called the charges “baseless and defamatory.”

    Who is Alisher Usmanov?

    The UK’s Sunday Times newspaper ranked Usmanov at No. 6 in a list of the world’s richest people in 2021. He was one of the dozens of Russian billionaires to be hit by Western sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine.

    He is possibly best known for his metals and mining interests, for owning the Kommersant publishing house in Russia, and for owning Russia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, Megafon. He also was formerly a major stakeholder in Premier League football giants Arsenal.

    Usmanov is said to be worth an estimated net of $16.2 billion (€16.9 billion). He has 49% economic interest and 100% voting rights in the global conglomerate and holding company USM.

    While the United States has blocked his personal assets, it has kept companies controlled by him off its list of sanctions in a bid not to drive up commodity prices. He is thought to presently be living in his native Uzbekistan.

    The Official Journal of the European Union described Usmanov in March as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.”

    But Usmanov disputes this. Along with former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, he is one of the oligarchs appealing his inclusion on the EU sanctions lists, at the bloc’s General Court.

    The yacht that was searched — the “Dilbar” — is the world’s largest yacht by tonnage and is officially owned by Usmanov’s sister.

    The 155-meter (500-foot) vessel was named after Usmanov’s mother. It is valued at some $600 million and was previously docked in a Hamburg shipyard since October 2021 for repairs. The vessel is now moored in the northern port city of Bremen.