Four robbers sentenced to 20- years imprisonment each

Four robbers, Prosper Amegashie, Jamel Ahmed, Bilal Mohammed, and Martin Victor Agba, have each been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for robbing an okada rider of his motorcycle and stabbing him to death.

Mrs Eleanor Kakra Banes Botchway, presiding over the Gbetseley Circuit Court, sentenced them after finding them guilty after a full trial.

They had earlier pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and robbery.

Prosecutor, Inspector Maxwell Ayeh, said Amegashie is an 18-year-old student; Ahmed, 20-year-old driver; Mohammed, 23-year-old unemployed; and Agba, 22-year-old okada rider.

Inspector Ayeh said on August 29, 2023, at about 23:00 hours, the police received a distress call that a middle-aged man had been stabbed and lying in a pool of blood at Tema Community 22 annex near ROHI School.

He said the police proceeded to the scene and, with the assistance of a good Samaritan, rushed the victim to the Ashaiman Community Hospital.

He was later referred to the Tema General Hospital, where he died while receiving treatment.

He stated that investigations revealed that the victim, who was an okada rider, was riding his black royal motorbike from Tema Community 22 annex to Lebanon Zone 5 when he was attacked by the convicts, who stabbed him on his left shoulder with a knife.

The prosecutor added that one Pastor Eric Addae-Bredu came to the hospital and identified the deceased as his brother, giving his name as Victor Addae-Bredu, aged 27 years.

He said that on September 5, 2023, a postmortem examination was conducted on the body of the deceased by Dr. Eric Dumfe in the presence of the deceased's brother and uncle, which revealed the cause of death as hemorrhagic shock, exsanguination, and a stab wound on the left shoulder girdle.

Inspector Ayeh indicated that on September 15, 2023, police intelligence led to the arrest of the convicts, who confessed to the police that on the said day, they met at Ahmed's house at the Ashaiman dam site and decided to go and rob motorbikes on the rough road near Rohi location and hide themselves in the bush.

The convicts disclosed that at about 22:30 hours, the deceased was riding along the road where they were hiding when they attacked him at knifepoint and he was stabbed on his left shoulder by Ahmed, which caused him to fall off his motorcycle.

The accused persons sold the motorbike to someone in the Volta Region for Ghs2,500.

They were charged with the offence and put before the court after investigations.