Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi


A Kumasi High Court, presided over by Justice K.A. Pobih, last Friday convicted two armed robbers to serve a total of 46 years in prison with hard labour for snatching a number of vehicles from their owners at gunpoint.
The convicts, Nana Kwame Poku, alias Brutal, and Osei Yaw, who operated separately with their gang of armed robbers, were convicted after the court found them guilty of charges of conspiring to rob and robbing at gunpoint.
Poku, who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him when he appeared before the court, later changed his plea to guilty in the course of the trial, and the court convicted him accordingly to serve 25 years.
The court found him guilty of conspiring with others to rob and robbing a section of Kumasi taxi drivers of their Opel Astra taxis at gunpoint and selling them to one Agya Osei, alias Osei Wayo, who is also facing trial at the same court.
Osei, on the other hand, pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiring to rob and robbing at gunpoint and was jailed 21 years after the court found him guilty of snatching a vehicle at gunpoint from its owner and forcing a fuel attendant to fill the vehicle with fuel to enhance his armed robbery operations.
The Assistant State Attorney, Mr Ernest Offei Ayeh, who prosecuted, earlier told the court that Poku, a tailor, 42, conspired with Kwadwo Owusu, alias TK, now on trial, and Osei Wayo, a Kumasi-based car dealer, as well as two others now at large, to snatch taxis from their owners.
He said on July 7, 2006, they laid ambush at the Regional Office area in Kumasi and succeeded in robbing one Isaac Boakye of his Opel Astra car at gunpoint. He said the taxi was valued at GH¢4,000.
According to the prosecutor, the convict and his gang also succeeded in snatching another Opel Astra taxi valued at GH¢5,000 from one Kwabena Sarpong at gunpoint and sold it to the car dealer.
The prosecutor said again on July 31, 2006, the convict and his gang ambushed one Akwasi Sarkodie at the VRA area in Kumasi and snatched his Opel Astra valued at GH¢4,000, his Motorola cell phone valued at GH¢140, and cash of GH¢30.
He said the gang succeeded in snatching an Opel Astra from one Kwame Simon at gunpoint at Nhyiaso, a Kumasi suburb on August 10, 2006. He said the vehicle was valued at GH¢4500.
He said the convict and his gang, also at gunpoint, snatched an Opel Astra, a Nokia 1100 cell phone and cash of GH¢100 from one Nana Ekow Forson.
He said police investigations led to the arrest of the convict, Kwadwo Owusu, and Osei Wayo but the two accomplices escaped.
Mr Ayeh said Kwadwo Owusu and Osei Wayo would appear before the court on July 17, 2008.
Mr Osei Hwere who prosecuted in the case against Osei Yaw, said the convict, together with one Poku and Lazu now at large, snatched a vehicle at gunpoint from its owner with the intention of using it to undertake their armed robbery operations.
He said in the course of their operation, they detected that the fuel in the vehicle was not enough, so they went to a fuel attendant at Anyinasu No. 2, near Nkawie and forced the attendant, one Mohammed Issah, to fill the tank without paying a pesewa.
Mr Osei Hwere said police investigations led to the arrest of Osei Yaw, but his accomplice managed to escape.