Taxi driver remanded for committing crime

A Taxi Driver, Daniel Quaye, was on Thursday arraigned for attempting to commit crime, to wit robbery.

Daniel attempted to rob the complainant of his Taxi, on August 21, at the Korle Nurses Training school area.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge but was remanded by the court to reappear on September 15, for trial.

Police Chief Inspector, Kwabena Adu, the Prosecutor told the court that the complainant is Taxi Driver and lives at Tema Community 1, while the accused person also claims to be a taxi driver and resides at Dansoman.

He said on August 21, at about 1200 hours the complainant’s brother, who is the driver of a Toyota Corolla Taxi, gave the car to the complainant to drive as spare.

He said at 1630 hours on the same day, while the complainant was driving around community 10, Junction, the accused person stopped him, to take him to Korle Bu and he charged him GH? 50.00.

The prosecution said upon reaching Tema Station, in Accra, the accused asked the complainant to stop for him to attend to natures call at a public toilet which he obliged.

Daniel spent about one and half hours in the toilet before he came back and told the complainant to continue with the journey.

Police Chief Inspector Adu told the court that when they got to Korle Bu, Daniel asked the complainant to drive him to the Nurses Training School area for him to meet his master and collect money to pay the fare.

He said the complainant noticed that the road was blocked, but Daniel still directed him to turn left, but he slowed down because the road was bad, then immediately the accused person opened a polythene bag he was holding and picked an enamel syringe containing acid and sprayed on the complainant.

The complainant stopped and got out of the car took to his heel and shouted for help, but Daniel also got out of the car, chased the complainant with a wood also shouting for help.

Prosecution said the scene attracted residents in the area and both the complainant and accused person were arrested. When questioned, Daniel claimed that the taxi belonged to him and accused the complainant of being an armed robber.

The complainant also told them that, the said taxi was given to him as spare by his brother and showed his driver’s license in the car to them.

Police Chief Inspector Adu said Daniel was handed over to the Korle Bu police after which it was transferred to the Regional CID for further investigations.

He said during interrogation, Daniel initially denied the offence but later admitted the offence in his investigation caution statement and further stated that, his intention was to snatch the taxi from the complainant but did not succeeded.

He also admitted ownership of the polythene bag he was carrying containing a rope, knife, a piece of wood, enamel syringe, containing acid and two plastic bottles containing a liquid suspected to be acid, were items he decided to use in his robbery expedition.