Taxi Driver Blames Step - Mother For Bewitching Him To Steal

Mampong (Ash) July 27—Yaw Addo, a taxi driver who appeared before Mampong District court for stealing yams valued GHs 3,000 from a complainant’s farm attributed his stealing habit to his step -mother who he said has bewitched him to steal during the middle of the year for the past three years.

He pleaded guilty to stealing and was convicted on his own plea and was fined GHs 500 fine or in default six months imprisonment. In addition, the court ordered him to refund GHs 3,000 being the value of the yams to the complainant after the prison term.

Police Chief Inspector John Amponsah told the court presided over by Mr Godwin Kpogli that the complainant, Madam Esther Adoma is a farmer at Dadease near Asante Mampong and the suspect is a taxi driver at Mampong.

He said the complainant has a large acreage of yam farm at Dadease which has reached maturity and detected that somebody was uprooting some of the yams so she informed the farmers around the area to look out for the suspected thief.

The prosecution said on July 18 this year, a witness in the case saw the suspect loading some yams in the taxi cab and when she confronted him to know the source of the yams, the suspect said the load belongs to a certain woman at Mampong.Chief Inspector Amponsah said the witness accompanied the driver to the alleged woman who denied ownership of the yams and in the process, the taxi driver attempted to run away but he was arrested by the people who were attracted to the scene and handed over to the police.

He said the owner of the yams was informed and during police investigation, the suspect admitted stolen the yams and led the police to the farm where he said he has been to the farm on four different occasions to uproot the yams on market days at Mampong and sold to yam traders from Kumasi.

When the presiding judge asked him why he went to steal the yams, he said he was an ex-convict and has been in prison before for stealing and attributed his conduct to his step mother who he claimed has bewitched him to steal.