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 euros scam.
The suspect, who made international headlines in 1992 with his miraculous survival from a stowaway trip, was arrested from his hideout at Prampram after various search by the police over 26 years proved futile.
After almost two and a half decades of relentless efforts, Ofosu was arrested on Saturday October 14, 2023.
He was subsequently arraigned before the Takoradi Circuit Court B.
The prosecutor, 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 the suspect arrested have not been successful.
He prayed the court to remand the suspect to enable the police to conclude their investigations.
According to prosecution, the suspect has vacated his residence at Tanokrom, a surburb 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 October 30, 2023.
Complainant, Charles Ohemeng told Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson, the host of Connect FM’s Omanbapa Morning show through a telephone interview from Germany that, he met the accused in Germany in 1997 after he made international headlines following his miraculous escape from the 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 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, Kinsley 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’ which featured movie stars across the continent including Ghana’s veteran, David Dontoh.
The film was produced by Union Pictures and distributed to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Home Box Office (HBO) with Omar Epps starring as Ofosu.
By Eric Nana Gyetuah|ConnectFM|Onuaonline.com
