Two out of the seven suspected armed robbers standing trial for several robberies in the New Juaben Municipality, Samuel Kwame Akwetey, 35 and Isaac Agormor, 22 – both masons – have been sentenced to 35 years imprisonment each with hard labour in the trial of one of the cases involving them.
They were each found guilty on two counts of conspiracy and robbery.
The two, together with a runaway accomplice, Harrison Ofori, on November 22, 2013 used a jerk and a cutter to break into Georgina Boadi’s residence at Kenkey Factory, a Koforidua suburb in the Eastern Region. The two had armed themselves with machetes and a pistol.
They ordered her to give them money and subjected her and her family to severe beatings before ransacking her room, according to the prosecution.
She had told the court that she was naked at the time of the attack and Agormor wanted to rape her but after ordering her to lie down for a bout, his accomplice, Akwetey who had a pistol, intervened.
The trial judge, Ebenezer Osei Darko, in handing down his judgement on Tuesday, said the two deserved a harsher punishment to serve as deterrent to others.
He said the prosecution was able to prove to the court that indeed the two had committed the offenses for which they were charged.
Mr. Ebenezer Osei Darko said that Georgina Boadi, a trader, and her family were indeed robbed on November 22, 2013 while they were sleeping at about 1:00 am.
Items including two Toshiba laptops, five assorted Mobile phones, cash and others amounting to GH¢6,000.00 were taken away by the robbers.
The judge, in his over 20-minute ruling, said even though Agormor and Akwetey had confessed in their caution statements to the police how they met at Agartha, a Koforidua suburb, and planned the robbery with their runaway accomplice, they sought to deny the statement in court.
Quoting several authorities, he said when an accused person gives evidence on oath contrary to an earlier statement without any reasonable justification, the latter would not be considered.
The court therefore did not accept their denial of their caution statements which they had earlier accepted and subsequently read in court and tended in as exhibits.
Ebenezer Osei Darko said the denial of the statements was only a ploy to throw dust into the eyes of the court, and sentenced them accordingly.
Agormor said nothing, but Akwetey pleaded for leniency.
However, the judge refused Akwetey’s plea for mercy saying, robbery had become a national canker; “therefore they ought to be handed harsher punishment to serve as deterrent to others.”
The eyes of the two convicts glistened with tears after the ruling. Akwetey’s wife, moments after the verdict, came to the court with two children believed to be three years and seven months old ostensibly to say ‘good bye’ to their incarcerated father.
She also brought along some food in a basket which he threatened to pour on reporters, should they attempt to take snapshots of them.
Source: Rocklyn Antonio/Daily Guide
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