Okada rider jailed 10 years over robbery

The Tarkwa circuit court has convicted a 22-year-old okada rider, Kofi Sumaila alias Blackman, to 10 years imprisonment for robbing a commercial tricycle rider at Bompieso in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality.

He pleaded guilty and prayed to the court presided over by Hathia Ama Manu for forgiveness.

The judge before passing her judgment said: “Sumaila is a first-time offender, has been truthful, and did not waste the court’s time.”

Presenting the facts of the case, Superintendent Juliana Essel-Dadzie, said the complainant, Francis Wuri, 22, lives at Abukofi, while Sumaila resides at Aposo, both near Aboso.

On February 29, 2024, at about 0930 hours Sumaila hired the complainant to transport him to Bompieso cemetery road to convey his gold-bearing stones in sacks to Aboso.

She said when they got to a section of the road, the convict ordered the complainant to stop, and he obliged.

He then got down from the tricycle, walked a few meters away from the complainant, and started shouting as if he was calling someone but nobody responded.

Superintendent Essel-Dadzie said Sumaila returned to where the complainant was standing, and he pulled out a pair of scissors and ordered the complainant to surrender everything in his possession.

She said Sumaila dipped his hands into the complainant’s pockets and removed a cash sum of GH ¢1,200 and Tecno spark 8C mobile phone valued GH ¢700 after which he fled into a nearby cocoa farm.

The prosecution said the complainant reported the matter at the Aboso police post but while investigations were ongoing, the complainant and his colleagues arrested Sumaila from his hideout and handed him over to the police on March 2, 2024, at about 1430 hours.

Superintendent Essel-Dadzie told the court that when the police interrogated Sumaila, he confessed to the crime and said after the robbery he sold the mobile phone to a man in Tarkwa but failed to assist the police in arresting and retrieving the phone from the alleged suspect.