Three robbers sentenced to five years imprisonment

The Ashaiman Circuit Court has sentenced three robbers to five years imprisonment with hard labour each for conspiring and robbing a woman at Zenu in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality.

The culprits are Bismark Appiah, an 18-year-old bus conductor; Emmanuel Attakora, a 22-year-old mason; and Mubarik Sayiti, a 19-year-old welder; all residents of Zenu Atadeka.

The court, presided over by Mr Simon Gaga, sentenced them on two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime and robbery.

They were sentenced to three years on count one and five years in hard labour on count two. The sentence, however, is to run concurrently.

Chief Inspector Samuel Aperwah, prosecuting said, complainant Ms Evelyn Bortey Quaye was a worker at Free Zone Company in Tema and a resident of Atadeka, a suburb of Ashaiman.

Narrating the incident, Inspector Aperwah said on October 7 this year, at about 11:45 pm, the complainant closed from work and alighted from her company’s bus on the Atadeka road.

He said, whilst standing at the roadside in search of transport to her house, the accused persons, who were on a motorbike, stopped near her, held her to the ground and forcibly took her bag, which contained automated teller machines (ATM cards), GH₵7.00 cash, and an Itel mobile phone valued at GH₵300.10, and sped off.

According to the prosecution, Ms Quaye narrated her ordeal to two neighbourhood committee members, who spotted her shouting by the roadside some few minutes after the robbery.

The neighbourhood committee member, who was also on a motorbike, pursued the three convicts, who later abandoned their motorbikes, and escaped when they saw that they were being chased.

The neighbourhood committee members accompanied the complainant with the abandoned motorbike to make a complaint at the Zenu Atadeka Police station.

The court heard that on October 11, 2022, Bismark Appiah and Emmanuel Attakora went to the Katamanso Police Station to check whether they would see their motorbike there. However, they were sent to New York Police Station since it was not at Katamanso.

The prosecution said at New York Police Station, the accused persons pointed out the said motorbike, which was used in connection with the case and claimed ownership but failed to produce the document.

They were, therefore, detained, questioned, and investigations initiated, after which they were prosecuted before the court.