Cop, Ex-Soldier And 2 Others Jailed 120 Years

Four persons, including a police officer and an ex-soldier, were yesterday sentenced to 120 years in prison by an Accra Circuit Court. Lance Corporal Martin Agyare of the Police Mobile Force in Accra; ex- Leading Aircraftman, Iddrisu Ato; Harrison Tawiah, a driver; and Agbeko Mannah, were convicted after the court found them guilty of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery. The court, presided over by Mr. Francis Obiri, sentenced each person to 20 years� imprisonment for conspiracy and 30 years for robbery, all to run concurrently. Presenting the facts of the case, State Attorney Fred Kusim Adwen- daogo told the court that at about 2.30pm on April 15, 2012 the complainant, Louis Ofori Damson, withdrew an amount of S700 from the ADB Western Union point at Achimota Mile 7. According to him, the complainant, who headed towards Achimota on his motorbike, was accosted by the accused persons at Neoplan in a Kia Rio taxi with registration number GE 7537-11. State Attorney Adwendaogo told the court that Lance Corporal Agyare, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, ordered the complainant to surrender the money on him. He said the accused persons collected the money from the complainant and thereafter pulled him into their taxi and placed the motorbike in the boot of the car. He added that they drove the complainant to De Georgia car garage at Tesano, where they gave the motorbike back to him. Mr Adwendaogo said the accused persons asked the complainant to follow them to the Police Headquarters, but they bolted with the money. The complainant later made a report to the police on-May 22, 2012 and with the help of police informants the accused persons were arrested while planning to embark on another robbery. The convicts carried out their illegal operations at wee-smoking joints and around automated teller machines (ATMs) of banks, from where they trailed their victims to rob them. According to the police, the four had been terrorizing people at Tesano, Madina, -the University of Professional Studies, Adentan, Airport, Dzorwulu and Achimota in the mornings and afternoons. After trailing people who had with-drawn money from the ATMs, the suspects often created the impression of causing the arrest of those people for some offences, under the pretext of sending them to the Police Headquarters. On the way, the gang of four would collect whatever amount of money on their victims before releasing them.