Yutong Bus Passenger Denies Robbery Story

A passenger on the Yutong bus at the centre of the alleged highway robbery and rape case has told the court that it was not true that armed robbers attacked the bus.

Rather, he said, armed robbers shot at the bus but the passengers never had any contact with the armed robbers.

Mr Ahmed Boahen, who is a missionary with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, was being led in evidence at the circuit court by a State Attorney, Mr Paul Asibi Abariga yesterday, in the case in which a passenger of the Yutong bus, Amina Mohammed, has claimed that there was a highway robbery and rape involving the bus on October 11, 2010.

He said initially when he heard the gunshot, he thought it was a tyre burst and so expected the driver to stop the vehicle but the driver kept on moving and the passengers started saying that it was a gunshot.

Mr Boahen said the driver drove on and stopped at a place where two vehicles had parked. He said it was there he saw that part of the windscreen had been smashed and the number plate and part of the base of the vehicle were also dented.

During cross-examination by counsel for Amina Mohammed, Mr Andy Appiah-Kubi, Mr Boahen said he heard the driver of the bus, Mr Sam Asiedu Sasu, talk to his boss on phone that armed robbers had shot at the vehicle.

Mr Boahen said after that they boarded the vehicle and the driver branched off at a place where he (the driver) alone got down and did something that he did not know of for about 20 minutes before he returned.

He said the next stop was at Kintampo, where the passengers got down to wash their faces and have breakfast.

He said when the vehicle took off from Kintampo, he alighted in Tamale.

Mr Boahen said he heard the issue of an armed robbery and rape being discussed on television by some people but he did not know that the incident was related to the bus on which he was a passenger.

He said he got to know about it only when the police called him to confirm whether he had been on the said Yutong bus or not.

Mr Boahen said he lost the original of his bus ticket but he was led in evidence by Mr Abariga to identify the seat number (number 20) and his mobile phone number, as well as his duplicate ticket.

The case has been adjourned to today for the defence to continue the cross-examination of Mr Boahen.