10 Jailed 130 Years For Robbery

Ten persons suspected to be behind a series of robbery incidents in Accra and its environs, were yesterday sentenced to a total of 130 years imprisonment by an Accra circuit court.

They are Anthony Galley aka Rasta, trader; Amewuga Kumafu aka Huga, labourer; Richard Teyuie, driver's mate; Richard Korley aka Sapele, auto electrician and Akwasi Aikins aka Macho, trader.

The others are Maxwell Adams aka Bayie, electrician; Michael Labosey aka Skinny, labourer; Isaac Amoako, acrobat; Albert Ashorn, drummer and Nii Armah, welder.

In the case of Rasta and others the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector K. Adu, said the convicts on April 16, 2014 conspired and robbed one Alhassan Mufid of his two iphone 6 mobile telephones valued at GH¢3,000 and Nokia telephone worth GH¢300.

Judgement
Although the accused persons had variously denied the offence in a court presided over by Justice Francis Obiri, the court found them culpable.

The trial judge, giving separate judgements, expressed worry over the upsurge of crime in the country.

He said although the accused persons had pleaded for leniency, they ought to be given a harsher sentence to indicate the resentment of society against the crime.

Justice Obiri accordingly slapped the accused persons 15 years each for conspiracy and robbery to run concurrently.

Facts
Earlier in the trial, Chief Inspector Adu had told the court that all the accused persons were residents of Agbogblohie Brazil in Accra.

He said at about 12:30 pm on the said date, the complainant and his friends were in front of their student's hostel at Adjiriganor taking snapshots with their phones when they were attacked by the accused persons who were wielding cutlasses and guns.

Chief Inspector Adu stated that the gang threatened to kill Mufid or slash his body with the cutlass if he failed to give them the phones.

He said the complainant, after giving the phone to the suspected robbers, reported the case to the police and identified Rasta at the station, who had been brought there in another robbery case.

Chief Inspector Adu said Raster led the police to arrest the other accomplices.

He said on July 7, 2014 Prince Nii Abbey, a human resource manager of Emmanuel and William Miro Finance Limited and complainant in the case, got to the Kaneshie footbridge on his way home at about 5:30 pm.

The disclosed that on reaching the small footbridge, the suspects attacked Nii Abbey with machetes and metal bars and succeeded in robbing him of his Samsung mobile telephone, wallet containing GH¢50.00, voter ID Card, Unibank ATM and National Health Insurance card and left him in a pool of blood.

He said that a police officer, who happened to be passing by, rushed the manager to the hospital in a hired taxi, chased the suspects and had them arrested.

He said Nii Armah was not among the suspects but was later arrested after Ashorn had claimed they robbed the victim together.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson & Fidelia Achama