Two in court for robbery

Two persons were on Tuesday, August 1, remanded by an Accra Circuit Court on the charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, attempting to commit robbery and robbery.

Toufik Awudu Sanda and Francis Takyi were said to have conspired, attempted to rob one Jacob of his taxi cab, and robbed one Ken of his Infinix mobile phone, worth Gh¢650.00, eight-gigabyte pen drive worth Gh¢60.00 and an amount of Gh¢450.00.

The two pleaded not guilty to the charges but were remanded by the court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh to reappear on August 15.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Victor Dosoo, told the court that the complainants, Ken Amu and Jacob Amenyega are taxi drivers, but Ken resides at Haatso while Jacob resides at Mallam Gbawe.

He said Toufik and Frank are both drivers’ mates residing at Ashaley Botwe.

The prosecution said on July 21, at about 12:10 midnight, Ken was in charge of his Kia taxi on his usual rounds when the accused persons hired his services from Madina to Adenta Housing down.

On reaching a section of the road, the accused persons told him to stop and when he demanded for his money, Frank held the complainant’s ignition key and turned off the engine. Toufik held the complainant and overpowered him in the process.

Mr Dosoo said Taufik then used a sharp object to inflict a deep cut on Ken’s neck. The two succeeded in robbing the complainant of his Infinix phone, worth Gh¢650.00, eight-gigabyte pen drive worth Gh¢60.00 and an amount of Gh¢450.00, and managed to escape when the complainant started shouting for help.

According to the prosecution, just about 30 minutes later, the two, with the same modus operandi hired the services of Jacob who was driving a Nissan Almeira taxi.

They struggled with him to take control of his ignition key in an attempt to rob him of the car.

He said Jacob, however, managed to run away with his ignition key and then met a police patrol team, who accompanied him to the scene and arrested Toufik.

On July 25, Francis was arrested from his hide out. Toufik in his caution statement admitted the offence, while Francis denied it.