TWO ROBBERS JAILED 21 YEARS (PAGE 19)

A Kumasi High Court, presided over by Justice K.A. Pobee, has convicted two robbers to serve 21 years’ jail term each with hard labour for robbing a taxi driver, a building contractor and a policeman at gunpoint.
The convicts, Ibrahim Saani, 26, alias Babanjida, who claimed to be a tailor from Aboabo in Kumasi, and Mutalar Muhammed, 25, said to be a trader — described by the police as notorious armed robbers — are also standing trial before the Kumasi High Court 5 for robbing some residents in Kumasi at gunpoint.
They pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to rob and robbing at gunpoint, but after the trial, which took about two years, the court found them guilty of the offence and convicted them accordingly.
One of their accomplices, who was identified only as Jahrule, is at large and police are searching for him.
Prosecuting, a State Attorney, Mr Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, told the court that the complainants in the case, Muhammed Misbahu, Alfred Aboagye Frimpong and Benjamin Kumi, are a taxi driver, a building contractor and a police constable respectively.
He said around 8 pm on January 18, 2007, the convicts, who had concealed locally manufactured pistols in their clothes, approached the taxi driver at Asafo and hired him to drive them in his Opel Vectra, with registration number BA 219 T, to the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
He said around the Freeman Hotel junction at Asokwa, the convicts, together with their accomplice, Jahrule, who is at large, and Musah Abdul Mumuni, alias Apozo, now deceased, attacked the taxi driver with their concealed weapons and succeeded in robbing him of GH¢35.
He said before robbing the taxi driver, the convicts and their accomplices fired series of warning shots, threatening to blow the head of their victim if he attempted to struggle with them.
He said moments after they had scared the victim with the warning shots, they pushed the driver away and Babanjida took control of the vehicle and drove to Manhyia around 9.00 p.m.
He said at Manhyia, the convicts and their accomplices attacked Alfred Aboagye Frimpong with their locally manufactured pistols and succeeded in snatching his red Golf private car with registration BA 7 X.
Mr Otoo-Boison said the convicts and their accomplices also robbed Aboagye Frimpong of his Motorola mobile phone and cash of GH¢40 and abandoned the taxi at the scene with Banbanjida taking control of the Golf and speeding off.
He said moments later, they went to Ashtown, where they again attacked Constable Benjamin Kumi of the Regional Police Headquarters with their weapons and succeeded in robbing him of his Motorola mobile phone.
He said after the action, the convicts fired series of warning shots to scare the victim, who was in mufti and armed with an official pistol.
He said the policeman returned fire and hit Musah Abdul Mumuni alias Apozo in his thigh, causing him to bleed profusely. He said the convicts managed to carry their injured accomplice in the Golf car to Aboabo but abandoned him in his house where he was found dead the following day.
He said investigation by the police led to the retrieval of the body and after post-mortem examination the body was released to his family for burial.
He said the convicts later abandoned the Golf car around the Kumasi Polytechnic and was retrieved and investigations later led to their arrest.