Three jailed 90 years for robbery

Kumasi Circuit Court 3 on Wednesday January 31, 2018 sentenced three accused persons Joseph Gyimah 21, Richard Banyiwa 25 and Dramani Seidu 24 to ninety years imprisonment with hard labour for pleading guilty to 12 criminal charges.

The accused persons were charged with 12 counts including conspiracy, eleven robbery charges and were each sentenced to thirty years each.

The Court presided over by Her Honour Lydia Osei Marfo, delivering judgment said the accused persons have pleaded guilty to all the 12 charges leveled against them and are convicted to all the counts.

"The incident comes at a time when lawlessness seems to gain grounds. Apparently no non deterrent sentence is adopted these days by courts" stressed Her Honour Osei Marfo.

She further stated,” now criminals are emboldened to go to police station to free perceived colleagues who have been arrested on suspicions of committed crimes.”

Presenting the fact, police prosecutor Inspector Eric Asare told the court that Nyinahin District Police Command in Ashanti region on 15, January this year, acting on intelligence, arrested 3 suspected robbers who were involved in robbery at Asanayo forest on the Afepaye-Nyinahin trunk road near Nyinahin in the Atwima Nponua.

He said the suspects, wielding two single-barreled guns, laid ambush at the Asanayo forest, then fired and stopped the driver in charge of a 207 Benz Sprinter passenger bus and forcibly ordered him to stop, which he obliged out of fear.

“The three suspects armed robbers at gunpoint, then ordered the driver and all the passengers out of the vehicle to lie down and subsequently robbed them of unspecified amount of money and over twenty mobile phones and bolted into the forest,” he continued.

The prosecutor further stated that luck however eluded them, "a search in their room revealed two single barreled guns, two BB cartridges, 1 AAA cartridge, 20 assorted mobile phones, 7 dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, a sachet of Tramadol capsules and 1 thousand 350 Ghana Cedis.

Meanwhile, victims in the robbery attack have identified all 3 suspects as their assailants.