Naked runaway prisoner gets four years  imprisonment

A prisoner, Fataw Abdella, who escaped from lawful prison custody nude, has been sentenced to four years in prison in hard labour by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.

Although Abdella pleaded guilty to the charge, he appealed to the presiding judge, Mrs Hathia Ama Manu, to temper justice with mercy as he was misled by a fellow prisoner.

However, the judge explained to Abdella that the essence of punishment was to deter people like him from committing further crimes and also to safeguard the country.

Chief Inspector Joseph Lartey, prosecuting, told the court that the complainant, Superintendent Bright Gbogbo, was the second in command at the Tarkwa Local Prison and Abdella was a remand prisoner in a robbery case.

He said the bathhouse at the prison yard, which served the inmates, was not roofed and had only been secured with razor wire mesh wound around wooden bars nailed to the walls.

On December 1, 2023, around 1430 hours, Abdella, under the pretext of going to take his bath, climbed over the razor wire mesh and jumped over the walls of the prison completely naked in a bid to escape.

Chief Inspector Lartey said some prison officers on duty spotted Abdella and raised the alarm by sounding the emergency siren and this attracted other officers nearby and some members of the public to apprehend him.

He said Abdella fled through the Cyanide community and railway quarters and was heading towards the Tarkwa Banso road, but a prison officer with the support of a taxi driver arrested Abdella and escorted him back to the prison yard.

The incident was reported to the police and during investigation Abdella led them to the crime scene and demonstrated how he scaled down the wall, the prosecutor said.

Abdella would be standing trial for his previous charge of robbery soon at the same court.