Nigerian gets 21 years for robbery

An Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday sentenced a Nigerian, Stephen Osazee, to 21 years in imprisonment in hard labour for robbery.

Stephen, 21 was said to have robbed one Salifu Diau Rahman of his unregistered Toyota Highlander worth GHC120,000.00, seven mobile phones and an amount of GHC430.00.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge, but after trial, the court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh found him guilty of the offence and sentenced him accordingly.

The facts of the case as presented by Superintendent Patience Mario was that, the complainant Salifu, is an accountant at Amanfrom Senior High School and resides at Redtop a suburb of New Bortianor, while Stephen is a Nigerian.

She said on December 30, 2016, the complainant and his brother went out with the complainants unregistered Toyota Highlander with trade plate No. DV 1047-16.

She said in the absence of the complainant, Stephen and two other scaled the fence wall to the complainant’s house and waited for them in there.

The prosecution said at about 21:50 hours that same day to complainant returned to the house with the said car, and on their arrival, Stephen and two others who were already in the house attacked them with a locally manufactured pistol and pump action gun and ordered him to hand over the keys of the car to them, which he did.

Superintendent Mario told the court that, they matched the complainant and his brother from the compound into the main building and robbed him and his family of seven mobile phones and an amount of GHC430.00, and later drove the car away.

She said the complainant reported the matter to the police.

On January 2, Stephen and seven others were arrested upon a tip-off. On January 3, the complainant saw him at the police station and quickly pointed him out to the police as one of the people who robbed him.

According to the prosecution, in his caution statement, Stephen denied the offence.