Court frees night watchman of stealing charge

Tepa (Ash), Nov. 10, GNA - Issah Busanga, 65, a farmer and a night-watchman who was accused of stealing 40 million cedis belonging to the Produce Buying Company (PBC) at Achina in the Ahafo-Ano North District was acquitted and discharged on Wednesday by a Circuit Court at Tepa for lack of evidence.

He pleaded not guilty to all three counts of unlawful causing damage, unlawful entry and stealing.

In his judgement, Mr Justice S.K.B. Alomatu, said all six prosecution witnesses gave porous and contradictory statements which did not support the facts of the case. He stressed that even though the stealing took place at Achina, the prosecution stated that it took place at Tepa. According to the court, although the first prosecution witness, Mr Raphael Agyapong, a PBC purchasing clerk, said he had withdrawn 70.2 million cedis from the Ghana Commercial Bank and a Rural Bank at Tepa, part of which was the 40 million stolen by the accused, there was no document to support the withdrawal. Another reason by the court was that when the police conducted a search in the house of the accused person and that of his son, no money was found on them.

Similarly, the presiding judge said even though the Assemblyman member at Achina beat a gong-gong to inform the people to take precaution to protect their properties because of some stealing cases reported in nearby villages and towns, the purchasing clerk ignored this warning.

Besides, as at 2100 hours when he detected the loss of the money and also realised that the accused was not at post, he did not take any action.

Furthermore, the court did not understand why the police failed to arrest the purchasing clerk, his assistant and some labourers who were present when the purchasing clerk counted the 40 million cedis, locked it in a safe and took the key away.

The facts of the case as presented by Police Inspector Francis Asante were that, on December 22, 2005, Raphael Agyapong withdrew 70.2 million cedis from two banks at Tepa for payment of cocoa purchased from some farmers.

He said after payments on that day, he put 40 million cedis which was left in a safe at the PBC office at Achina, but detected the following day that the office had been forcibly opened and the safe damaged and the money stolen.

According to the persecution, the accused person who was the night watchman failed to turn up for duty on that day so he was later arrested and charged with the offence.