Escapee rearrested and sentenced to 30 years

A Tema Circuit Court has sentenced Alfred Adjei, a jail escapee, to 30 months imprisonment for escaping from lawful custody at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Maxwell Atingane, Tema Regional Police Commander who made this known to the Ghana News Agency in his office in Tema on Friday, said Adjei was arrested at Friends Hotel at Community Two in Tema on April 19, 2013.

DCOP Atingane recounted that on June 20, 2002 Adjei and five others were arrested by the Tema Regional Criminal Investigation Department for conspiracy and robbing a trader of her personal effects and an unspecified amount of money.

He said while the six accused persons were being sent for remand at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, the six escaped together with three other prisoners from lawful custody in the early hours of January 22, 2005.

The Tema Regional Police Commander said the Police mounted a search for the six accused persons and recaptured five of them, excluding Adjei, who were arraigned before an Accra Fast Track High Court, which convicted and sentenced each one of them to 30 years imprisonment on July 21, 2008.

DCOP Atingane said Adjei, however, escaped to the Republic of Togo and was, therefore, sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in absentia by the same court.

He intimated that the trial court was being contacted by the Tema Regional Police Command for the release of the necessary document to enable Adjei serve his earlier conviction of 30 years.

DCOP Atingane reminded the public that anyone who commits a crime and thinks he would go scot-free was only deceiving himself because the long arm of the law will finally catch up with him.