'Evil Spirit Made Me Steal'

A-28-year-old farmer has been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in hard labour for stealing a ram.

Moro Mohammed told the Sunyani Magistrate's Court that it was some evil spirits from his family that led him to steal the ram at Tanom, near Chiraa in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

He pleaded guilty to the offence of stealing and was sentenced on his own plea by the court presided over by Mr Albert Zoogah.

Moro's demeanour when he attempted to sell the ram in Sunyani, made the people around suspicious. He was therefore arrested by two personnel of the Community Police Unit (CPU) after admitting during an interrogation by the CPU personnel that he stole the ram from a pen at a village called Tanom, near Chiraa.

The ram, which was shown in court as an exhibit, was handed over to the owner, Issah Mohammed, who is also the complainant in the case.

The convict, who told the court that it was some members of his family who had bewitched him to steal the ram, pleaded for leniency, but was sentenced by the court based on his own plea.

Passing judgement, Mr Zoogah said he took into consideration the fact that the ram had been retrieved and also because the accused was a first time offender.

Sergeant Faustian Anaman, who prosecuted the case, told the court that on December 15, 2008, the complainant detected that one of his ram in a pen had been stolen and therefore informed his neighbours about the theft and asked them to be on the look-out but nothing fruitful came out of it.

She said on December 19, the complainant was in his house when two CPU personnel from Sunyani escorted the convict to the house with a report that they arrested him in Sunyani when he attempted to offer the ram for sale.

Sgt Anaman said the CPU personnel who became suspicious of the convict, confronted him and during interrogation he confessed to having stolen the ram.

She said the CPU personnel later handed over the convict to the police and after further investigations, he was charged with the offence and put before the court.

Story by Samuel Duodu