A Nigerian national, Maazi Okechuku Augustine, has been remanded in custody by the Accra Circuit Court in Ghana over his alleged involvement in a foiled bank robbery operation in the Labone area of Accra. Augustine is expected to reappear before the court on Wednesday.
He was arrested on Thursday, August 13, 2026, after Ghanaian police said they thwarted an alleged plot to rob three banks — GCB Bank, Ecobank, and Zenith Bank — in the Labone district. According to the Ghana Police Service, officers acted on intelligence received at approximately 10:45 a.m. indicating that a gang was preparing to attack the banks.
Police deployed to the area spotted suspected gang members in vehicles parked near the targeted branches. One vehicle, a Toyota Highlander with registration number GS-1434-18, sped away when the occupants sighted officers, prompting a chase that ended with Augustine’s arrest while another occupant escaped. Occupants of a second vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson bearing registration number GS 7915-17, allegedly attempted to flee while firing at police, leading to a shootout in which two suspects were killed. A pistol was also recovered from the scene.
However, the police account has been challenged by GCB Bank, which issued a statement denying that its Labone branch was targeted. “GCB Bank wishes to clarify that no robbery or attempted robbery took place at our Labone Branch or on the Bank’s premises,” the bank said, adding that the branch was never breached and that no customer, staff member, funds, or property were affected.
Further scrutiny has deepened the discrepancies. Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that the Toyota Highlander identified by police as one of the recovered vehicles carried a registration number that Ghanaian authorities had listed as impounded in 2019, raising questions about the vehicle’s history and the accuracy of the police narrative.
The Nigerian High Commission in Ghana has intervened following Augustine’s arrest and the deaths of the two other suspects. Destiny Austine Omon, the commission’s media coordinator, questioned several aspects of the police account, including the location of the alleged operation — described as one of the safest areas in Ghana, close to the 37 Military Base, the Ghanaian Presidency, police headquarters, and cantonment — and the scale of the weaponry allegedly recovered.
“It does not add up for armed robbers wanting to do that scale of attack to be arrested with only a pistol,” Omon told SaharaReporters. The President of All Nigerian Communities in Ghana was also reportedly dispatched to the Ghana Police Headquarters to seek clarification on the arrest and the fatalities.
The Ghana Police Service has maintained that its officers foiled a planned attack on the three banks. Augustine’s remand means he will remain in custody pending his next court appearance, while the conflicting accounts continue to fuel public debate over the precise nature of the operation that led to the arrests and deaths.
