2 ROBBERS TO SERVE 60 YEARS EACH (PAGE 20, MIRROR, JULY 10, 2010)

From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi.

After a year’s trial of two armed robbers, who shot and killed a young farmer at Ejura in the Ashanti Region, causing the mother of the victim to also die out of shock, a Kumasi Circuit Court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Amoo-Yartey, has convicted the robbers to serve 60-year jail term each with hard labour.
They were found guilty of conspiracy to rob and robbing.
The convicts, Alim Yaao Dawuda, 23, and Abdul Kadri Adam, alias Soldier, 25, who were arrested in their various hide outs after escaping from the robbing scene, attacked and shot one Yaw Asante at Ejura on May 26, 2009.
Before shooting the deceased with a locally manufactured pistol, the convicts had also attacked some tenants in the same house at Ejura, robbing them of a total of GH¢3,500.00 and two mobile phones valued GH¢300.00
Moments after their arrest last year, some of the victims who survived the ordeal, identified them during an identification parade, making it possible for the police to intensify their investigation and arraigning them before court .
The police are still hunting for an accomplice who was identified as Walidu Bilyaminu.
A State Attorney, Mr Richmond Osei-Hwere, who gave the facts during the trial, said Alim Yao Dawuda and Abdul Kadri Adam, together with their accomplice at large , who lived in Ejura, constituted themselves into a gang of robbers, armed with locally manufactured guns and stormed the house of the deceased, molesting them before robbing them of various households items and cash.
He said in the course of the attack, the convicts shot Yaw Asante, an inmate of the house, causing him to bleed profusely .
According to Mr Osei- Hwere, Asante who was rushed to the hospital, died from the gun shot wounds, a situation which also caused his mother to die out of shock when she heard the news.
He said the convicts escaped from the house before police arrived at the scene, but investigations later led to their arrest at various hide outs.
He said during an identification parade, some of the victims identified the convicts as part of the gang who robbed them, and during investigations, Dawuda admitted the offence in his statement to the police and named Kadri Adam and Bilyaminu as his accomplices.