Foreigner jailed 10 years for robbing an immigration officer

A Circuit Court at Aflao has sentenced a Togolese national to 10 years imprisonment for robbing a Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) female officer at knife point at Dzodze in the Ketu North District of the Volta Region.

Christian Agbodzra, alias Togo, 30, has pleaded not guilty to both unlawful entry and robbery.

The Court, presided over by Mr. Ali Baba Abature, fined him GHC1,200.00 for robbery and he will go to jail for three years for unlawful entry.

Both sentences are to run consecutively.

The facts of the prosecution were that the accused, an unemployed Togolese national, lived at Aflao, while the GIS officer resided at Dzodze.

At about 0030 hours sometime in October 2016, the GIS lady, who was awake, saw the trapdoor to her room opened and the accused, wielding a knife, entered.

The prosecution said the accused, at knife point ordered the officer to surrender her Techno Smart cellular phone she was then browsing.

A struggle ensued between the two, and in the process the accused staggered and his knife fell.

The accused nonetheless succeeded in overpowering the female officer, pinned her unto her bed, snatched the phone and bolted with it, but left his knife behind.

The prosecution said the Agbodzra, who apparently came on a motorbike for the operations, was riding back to Aflao on the bike, but luck eluded him when two commercial motor riders saw him and suspected him to be a criminal and gave him a chase.

The commercial motor riders finally caught up with him at the precincts of the Dzodze-Penyi Senior High School, stopped and quizzed him, not satisfied with his answers; they arrested and escorted him to the police at Dzodze for interrogation.

According to the prosecution, just as the accused was handed over, the GIS officer, coincidentally arrived with the accused person’s knife to lodge complaints with the police and there and then made out the accused, confirming the suspicion of the two who arrested him.

The Techno Smart phone with the picture of the GIS officer as its screen-saver was found in Agbodzra’s pocket and in the bag he was carrying, a crowbar was found.

The accused in his caution statement admitted entering the complainant’s room and snatching her phone but denied being armed with a knife.