2 Soldiers Freed Over Robbery 

Four persons, including two serving soldiers, were yesterday acquitted and discharged by an Accra circuit court for robbery.

They are L/CPL Obeng Darko Stylish; L/CPL Dasmani Faisal; Christopher Quinoo, private surveyor and Isaac Larbi, unemployed.

The prosecution, led by Joyce B. Debrah, had alleged that the four, in May 2013 at Abelemkpe in Accra, conspired and robbed one George Ohemeng, a driver.

The state attorney had claimed that the accused persons used force and stole the sum of GH¢1,900 from the driver.

Appearing before the court presided over by Justice Francis Obiri, the accused persons variously denied the offence.

However, the court, after full trial, confirmed the innocence of the accused persons and cleared them of the charges preferred against them by the state.

Justice Obiri said in any criminal trial like the one before the court, it was the duty of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused persons beyond all reasonable doubts.

He said the prosecution failed to bring the complainant to testify in the case or assist the court in arriving at the identities of the accused persons.

In the view of the high court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a circuit court judge, the court was in that regard left to speculate.

Justice Obiri was emphatic that he was unable to convict the caused persons based on speculation.

At the initial stages of the trial, the prosecution alleged that customers of the Achimota Mile 7 Western Union had been complaining that anytime they withdrew money and left the bank, they got arrested by some soldiers and their accomplices and sent to an unknown place, where their monies were taken from them.

Ms Joyce Debrah said on May 4, George Ohemeng went to the bank, cashed the said amount and boarded an urban bus to Medie but on reaching a spot, one of the accused persons who was seated on the front seat, pulled him out of the bus, forced him into a taxi and sent him to Abelemkpe where GH¢1,900 was taken from him.

Ms. Debrah said the accused persons were arrested in respect of another robbery case brought to the Tesano Police Station.

She said investigations revealed that Isaac enters the bank and relays information to the other accused persons who monitor the customers and subsequently rob them.

By: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
[email protected]
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