3 ARMED ROBBERS JAILED 135 YEARS (PAGE 4)

Three armed robbers have been sentenced to a total of 135 years’ imprisonment in hard labour for raping two ladies in Kumasi in two separate incidents before robbing them of their items, including a Toyota saloon car, at gunpoint.
The convicts, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rape and raping, as well as robbing the ladies in separate areas, were convicted on their own pleas.
The Kumasi High Court, presided over by Mr Justice R.C. Azumah, convicted 25-year-old Daniel Domfe to 27 years imprisonment in hard labour for taking part in one of the robberies and rape cases, while his accomplices, Daniel Dumanu, alias Kwabena Ntikumah, and Edward Arthur, who were actively involved in both cases, were convicted to serve 54 years’ imprisonment each in hard labour when they appeared before the court on Wednesday, April 29, 2009.
The fourth and fifth accomplices, Kojo Amonu and Akwasi Boahen, who pleaded not guilty to the offences, were remanded in prison custody to reappear before the court at a later date.
The Ashanti Regional State Attorney, Mr Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, who prosecuted, told the court that around 9.30 p.m. on October 2, 2008, the first complainant, who works at a restaurant in Kumasi, boarded a taxi at Ahodwo, with Domfe at the wheels.
He said the taxi, which had three other occupants, diverted from the route the lady was going to a different direction and after driving for some time to an unknown destination, the driver stopped the taxi and he and his accomplices raped the lady in turns at gunpoint.
Mr Otoo-Boison said not satisfied with their action, and despite the trauma they had put the lady in, they forcibly took away her handbag containing items estimated at GH¢37, a mobile phone valued at GH¢95 and some unspecified amount of money and left her to her fate.
He said the lady made a complaint to the police and investigations led to the arrest of the convicts.
He said in the second incident, the convicts, including Akwasi Boahen and three others now at large, gang-raped a nurse in Kumasi after they had forcibly seized her car at gunpoint.
Explaining how the incident took place, Mr Otoo-Boison said around 7.30 p.m. on March 20, 2009 after the nurse had closed from work and was driving towards home on the Boadi-Apeadu road, the convicts, who were in a taxi, succeeded in crossing her Toyota Corona saloon car, forcing the nurse to stop.
He said at gunpoint, the convicts and their accomplices took over the car and took the nurse to an unknown place where they raped her in turns.
He said they also took away the car, valued at GH¢6,500, as well as three Nokia mobile phones estimated at GH¢400 and GH¢80 cash before bolting.
Mr Otoo-Boison said police investigations led to the arrest of the convicts and during investigations it came to light that they were the same gang who had raped a lady in turns in October last year.
They were subsequently charged with the offence.