2 jailed for robbing police

Aboagye Tandoh, an Accra Circuit Court judge, yesterday slapped two armed robbers with a twenty-one-year jail term each after they admitted that they entered the house of a policewoman, PW Inspector Stella Amenyedo, and made away with her laptop, digital camera and a cash sum of GHc3,800.

The suspects—Ababire Macday, a student, and his alleged accomplice, Simon Sowah, a mason—who were caught on CCTV threatening the four children of the police officer were charged with conspiracy to commit crime and robbery and they all pleaded guilty.

They were consequently convicted on their own plea and handed the said jail term while an accomplice, who the police identified as Dzidzor, is at large.

The facts of the case as presented by DSP Kwaw Bempah, the prosecuting officer, are that the complainant is a police officer stationed at the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) Bureau in Accra and lives at Ravico, Nungua while Macday is a student and Sowah is a mason.

He said on September 3, 2015 while the complainant was on duty in Tamale leaving behind her four children, the suspects, with the intent to rob the complainant, scaled the wall into her home with the help of two others.

According to him, the robbers broke the burglar-proof of the house and entered through the main door of the complainant’s home. They threatened the children with pistols and made away with her barbering machine, Sony digital camera, Samsung laptop and the aforementioned cash, all amounting to GHc 6,300.

In addition, DSP Bempah said unknown to the suspects, a CCTV camera fixed by a tenant captured them while they were in action, adding that when the complainant came the children identified the suspects on camera. The matter was subsequently reported to the police.

The police officer stated that the student was later caught at the Kingsway International Worship Centre located at Nungua stealing a battery and was brought to the police station, where the victims identified him as one of the robbers who robbed them. He admitted the offence and mentioned the mason, Dzidzor and another as his accomplices.

Furthermore, the police officer stated that the police were led to arrest the mason, who in turn led them to retrieve foreign and locally manufactured guns at Sealady near Teshie.

The prosecuting officer said the police kept some of the guns to be used as evidence in court and said the robbers were arraigned after the police concluded investigations.