Kibi Circuit court in Eastern region presided over by His Honour Peter Oppong-Boahen has sentenced two members of a notorious car snatching syndicate to a total of 90 years imprisonment.
The convicts; Yaw Gershon, 40, a driver, and Ali Suleiman, 38, trader were sentenced 45 years respectively for the offence of Conspiracy to commit crime to wit robbery, and robbery contrary to sections 23(1) and 149 of the criminal offences Act 1960(Act 29).
The facts of the case investigated and prepared by Detective Amadu Abdul-Rauf are that, the complainant -Sackitey Joseph is a commercial driver in charge of a Toyota Hiace vehicle with registration number GT 5913-21 and lives at Nuaso near Odumase Krobo, whiles the first accused person Yaw Gershon is a driver and lives at Asiakwa, the second accused Ali Suleiman ,is a trader who lives at Akyem Osino.
On February 28, 2022 at about 9:30am, complainant went to the spraying shop with a witness in the case Moses Tetteh to take a nap before resuming work.
Whilst there, Tettey told the driver that someone called him on phone to get him a commercial driver to pick a family from Bunso to Somanya to attend a wedding ceremony.
The driver negotiated with the caller on phone which he made part payment of Ghc250 to buy fuel then directed him to pick him up at Bunso.
On reaching Bunso at about 9:30pm same day, certain man approached the complainant and identified himself as the person he spoke to on phone.
He boarded the vehicle and directed the driver to a place around the dumping site at Asiakwa where his accomplices had laid ambush.
The accused onboard the Vehicle pointed a pistol at him and ordered him to stop the vehicle which he obliged.
Five men armed with gun and cutlasses wearing face masks also emerged from the bush to attack and subject the driver to severe beatings and tied him with a rope.
They snatched the Toyota Hiace Vehicle ,stole two mobile phones and cash of Ghc1,200 from the driver and bolted.
After rescue ,the driver reported the case to Police for investigation.
On March 5, 2022 at about 2:30am, Yaw Gershon and Ali Suleiman were arrested at Buipe Police checkpoint in the Savannah Region for robbing a driver of his vehicle at Teacher Mante near Nsawam in the Eastern region using same modus oprandi.
Kibi police upon hearing the arrest, went for the accused persons for further interrogation which established they were part of the syndicate that robbed and snatched vehicle from the driver.
They were charged and arraigned before Kibi Circuit court but pleaded not guilty to all counts hence the case went for full trial for six months which the court found them guilty hence the sentence.
