Ataa Ayi jailed again

Justice Baffoe Bonnie, the judge who jailed Ayi Aryeetey alias Ataa Ayi, to seventy years imprisonment for robbery a few years ago, yesterday delivered another ruling sentencing the same convict and his other accomplices to a total of seventy years in jail.

Some members of the gang of seven were sentenced to thirty years in jail while the rest had forty years each.

This time around, Ataa Ayi and his colleagues were arraigned for robbing a businesswoman, Dora Kumi, of her 65 thousand dollars and GH¢4,500 at gunpoint around Taifa, a suburb of Accra on February 5, 2003.

The trial has spanned more than five years due to accusations and repudiations on what role each of the robbers played in the robbery, with some even denying the identity of their ringleader, Ataa Ayi, further complicating the issue.

Ataa Ayi, Stephen Nyarko, Frederick Lamptey Annan alias Numboe Kwabena Agbodogah, Samuel Kweku Annan and Raymond Ameh were sentenced to forty years each for conspiracy and robbery. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The remaining accused persons, Nana Yaw Owusu and Nana Osei Razak, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and robbery, were sentenced to thirty years each and both would run concurrently.

The convicted robbers who are currently serving time for various robbery offences would begin the sentences after serving their current sentences.

The trial judge, who is now a Supreme Court Judge, in his judgment said he found the accused persons guilty of the offences and noted the prosecution had been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the robbery.

The accused persons had denied they knew each other. Nana Yaw told the court that the most sought-after criminal, Ataa Ayi, was not the person they arrested as that notorious armed robber had died years ago.

He even went as far as saying that the police knew that the notorious Ataa Ayi was not the person in the dock and pleaded guilty to the offence. Immediately afterwards, his accomplice, Nana Osei Razak, however admitted that Ataa Ayi was indeed the one in court and prayed the court to deal leniently with him.

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie stated that the witnesses who were brought to testify against the accused persons, including the complainant Madam Kumi, were credible. But he said none of the accused persons was able to prove they did not take part in the robbery or not in Accra on the day of the said robbery.

Ataa Ayi looked indifferent when the sentence was handed down to him and none of the lawyers of the accused persons was present except for the prosecuting attorney, Esiama Asampong.

Numboe, who has suffered stroke since his first incarceration, could hardly walk and had to be supported by the prison officers as he walked out of the courtroom.

Nana Yaw Razak, in his evidence in chief, told the court that Kofi Owusu, alias Kofi Brokeman, a brother of Madam Dora, who gave them a tip-off to facilitate the crime, had been let off the hook.

He said Kofi Owusu told him that he had a sister, who was selfish and wanted them to rob her.

Notwithstanding the "confession", Mr. Asampong still brought his witness, Madam Dora.

Madam Dora identified Lamptey Annan alias Numboe, Nana Yaw, Samuel Kweku Annan alias Sammy Tugah, and Ameh as the people who robbed her at gunpoint at about 21 hours on February 5, 2003.

According to Madam Dora, on that day, she decided to travel to Cote d'Ivoire to purchase some goods but postponed the journey to the next day.

She said when she closed from work that day, she went to the house with two of her workers.

"When we were about to get to Taifa, two persons on a motorbike crossed us and soon after a Hyundai car with seven occupants pulled up on the scene."

Madam Dora said some of occupants, who were armed, wore masks and sunglasses, but others also wore nothing on their faces.

The occupants of the Hyundai car threw her (Dora) two workers out of her car, took boxes of biscuits, a box containing 45 million cedis and mobile phones.

She said Numboe pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her head and asked her not to move her car but bring out her 65,000 dollars. The accused persons then ordered them to lie down while they sped off with their booty.

She said she reported the matter to the police and a week after the robbery, Nana Yaw was arrested.

Madam Dora admitted that Kofi Owusu was her brother, who was later discharged by a court, after he had spent sometime in custody. According to her, Kofi Owusu had earlier introduced Sammy Tugah to her as a friend.