An Accra High Court has convicted the four accused persons who were on trial for the kidnap of two Canadian girls in Kumasi in June 2019.
Sampson Agharlor, Elvis Ojiyorwe, Jeff Omarsar and Yusif Yakubu have been sentenced to 10 years each, thus a total of 40 years in prison with hard labour.
This was after the court found them guilty of conspiracy charges to kidnap and kidnap contrary to Section 89 of the Criminal and other Offences Act.
The accused persons who at this time looked remorseful could only stare with glazed eyes as the trial judge Justice Lydia Osei Marfo read her two-hour judgment.
The court held that the horrific crime which threw the country into a state of despair and shock, must not be allowed to mar Ghana’s relations with its international partners.
“We cannot allow such nation wreckers to destroy Ghana’s relations with its international relations. Nothing done to them by way of punishment compares to the emotional stress family of the victims were put in,” the court said.
The trial judge also apologized to the families of the Canadian girls on behalf of Ghana for the traumatic experience they went through.
The victims and their families joined today’s proceedings via a video link.
Also, the court ordered that the mobile phones of the convicts used in perpetrating the offense should be burnt while the pistols retrieved handed over to the appropriate authorities.
Soon after the judgment, the second accused person Elvis Ojiyorwe, now a convict, knelt down and apologised to the victims and their families.
Background
Four accused persons – Sampson Agharlor, Elvis Ojiyorwe, Jeff Omarsar, and Yusif Yakubu – stand trial for conspiracy charges to kidnap and kidnap.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
The four are being held for their various roles in kidnapping Miss Lauren Patricia Catherine Tiley and Miss Bailey Jordan Chilley.
The two University of New Brunswick students were abducted on June 4, 2019, while volunteering for a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Kumasi.
They were rescued that same month, which led to the arrest of the suspects.
According to a news release from the Ghana Police Service, the two were believed to have been abducted at the Kumasi Royal Golf Club at about 8:25 pm.
Medical reports confirmed the girls were returned physically unhurt.
Facts of the case
The prosecution said the first accused person Aghalor who had been in Ghana for some time became a friend of Yakubu in March 2019.
In the course of their friendship, the first accused brought up the idea of kidnapping as a lucrative venture, an idea later accepted by Yakubu.
Yakubu is said to have agreed to assist Aghalor in the kidnapping and even helped procure a pistol for the task ahead.
To help with the plan, Agharlor went to Nigeria in May 2019 and recruited the two other accused persons — Elvis Ojiyorwe and Jeff Omarsar.
The three Nigerians, upon their arrival in Ghana, resided at Ashaiman for some time before they went to Kumasi to meet Yakubu.
When they got to Kumasi the first accused gave some money to Yakubu to hire a car, an apartment, and buy pistols and other items to enable them to put their plan in motion.
The prosecution said on June 4, 2019, the accused persons who were in a car, accosted the two Canadian girls, who had boarded an Uber taxi at their hostel at Nhyiaeso, a suburb of Kumasi.
The four accused persons are said to have assaulted and forced the girls into their vehicle amidst shootings.
They then sped off with their victims to their hideout, which was an uncompleted building at Kenyasi Krobo, another suburb of Kumasi.
After successfully executing their plan, the first accused who is the mastermind of the plot contacted the families of the kidnapped girls and demanded $800,000.
Luck, however, run out when a National Security team, led by Colonel Micheal Opoku, acting on intelligence, arrested Yakubu on June 11, 2019.
The surveillance team then proceeded to arrest Aghalor, Ojiyorwe, and Omarsar at their hideout at Kenyasi Krobo and rescued the two girls.
“During the rescue mission, Ojiyorwe and Omarsar threatened to kill the victims if the security agents dared them. They exchanged fire with the security agents until they were overpowered and arrested,” the prosecution added.
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