A Kyebi Circuit Court presided over by His Honour Peter Oppong-Boahen has sentenced two persons who are members of a car snatching syndicate to a total of 90 years imprisonment.
The convicts; Yaw Gershon, 40, a driver, and Ali Suleiman, 38, trader were sentenced 45 years respectively for the offence of Conspiracy to commit crime to wit robbery, and robbery contrary to sections 23(1) and 149 of the criminal offences Act 1960(Act 29).
Prosecutor of the case, Detective Abdul-Rauf Amadu stated the facts of the case that, the complainant, Joseph Sackitey drives a Toyota Hiace with registration number GT 5913-21 as a commercial driver and stays at Nuaso near Odumase Krobo whilst the first accused person, Yaw Gershon lives at Asiakwa also as driver, the Ali Suleiman, the second accused being a trader and stays at Akyem Osino.
On February 28, 2022 at about 9:30am, the complainant went to the spraying shop with Moses Tetteh, the witness in the case to take a nap before resuming work.
Whilst there, someone called the driver on phone to get him a commercial driver to convey a family to Somanya from Bunso for a wedding ceremony.
After making negotiations over the phone, a part payment of GH₵250.00 was made to purchase fuel after negotiating over the phone and directed him to pick him up at Bunso.
He arrived at Bunso about 9:30 pm same day when a certain man appraoched the complainant that he was the one that spoke to him on phone.
He boarded the vehicle and directed that he be taken to a place around the dumping site at Asiakwa where his accomplices had laid ambush.
The accused onboard the vehicle ordered him to stop the vehicle after pointing a pistol at him which he obliged.
A gang of five other men with guns and cutlasses wearing face masks came out of the bush and robbed the driver of a GH₵1,200.00, two mobile phones, snatched his vehicle and tied him up with ropes after subjecting him to severe beatings.
After he was rescued, the driver reported the matter to the police for investigation.
On March 5, 2022 at about 2:30am, Yaw Gershon and Ali Suleiman were arrested at Buipe Police checkpoint in the Savannah Region for robbing a driver of his vehicle at Teacher Mante near Nsawam in the Eastern region using same modus operandi.
The Kyebi police upon hearing the arrest, went for the accused persons for further interrogation which established they were part of the syndicate that robbed and snatched the Toyota Hiace from the driver.
They were charged and arraigned before the Kyebi Circuit court but pleaded not guilty to all counts hence the case went for full trial for six months which the court found them guilty hence the sentence.
Source: Onuaonline.com|Ghana
