TWO COPS GETS 60 YEARS FOR ROBBERY

By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba

Accra, Wednesday February 12, 2013

Two policemen who attacked a business man at the Industrial Area in Accra on February 7, 2011 and robbed him of his GHC37, 370.00 were yesterday convicted and sentenced to imprisonment of 30 years each in hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court.

The two convicts, Lance Corporal Reuben Addison and Constable Edward Opoku were each sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to commit crime of robbery and 30 years each for robbery.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Before the robbery act, Reuben Addison was stationed at the Achimota Terminal, while Edward Opoku was at the Amoured Car Squadron, and was on interdiction by the police administration for breaching the police services Act.

Delivery the sentence on the two policemen, the presiding judge, Mr. Francis Obiri said the court took into consideration of the degree of the offence executed by the two convicts, the sudden increase of crime in the country and other mitigation factors before handing them the 30 years jail sentence.

 The judge dismissed plea for leniency by counsel for the two convicts, Mr. George Asamani and stated that robbery is a national canker that need to be battle by all concern Ghanaian and that the court would not hesitate to sanction the law against robbery in order to save the lifes of others.

“Citizens are now finding it difficult to go about their work because of the increase of crime in the country. The offence is more serious when it is perpetrated by a policeman who supposed to protect live and property,” the judge stated.

He continued, “ your action are not only disgrace to yourselves, but to your family, the police services as an institution and the entire country, I believed that by the time you comes out from this sentence, you would  have  had reform yourselves,” Mr. Obiri told the two convicted cops.

He further held that the prosecution has proved the guilty of the convicts beyond reasonable doubt and they should therefore be given deterrent sentences to enable others to refrain from committing similar crime.

According to the judge, after taking all the evidence provided by the the prosecution, the court has no doubt that there was any other persons either than the two convicts that committed the crime of robbery on February 7, 2011.

He therefore sentenced them for conspiracy to commit crime of robbery and robbery contrary to Section 23(1) and 149 of the criminal offence Act 1990 of Act29.

The prosecution case was that on February 7, 2011, the complainant collected an amount of GHC37, 370.00 from his brother at Accra Central and hired a Motor bike rider to Abeka to conduct his business.

According to the prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Miss Winifred Sarpong, while on his way the complainant received a phone call and the Motor Bike rider stopped for him to receive the call.

She said the moment the complainant got down from the motor bike to receive the call, a man with a Pistol rushed on to him and asked that he should surrender everything in his possession including the money which was in bag to him.

The prosecutor said, before the complainant could say a word, the two convicts, Addison who was in police uniform accompanied Opoku who was then in plane clothing arrived at the scene with an unregistered Nissan March private car.

Miss Sarpong explained that the two convicts and their accomplice now at large dragged the complainant together with the motor bike rider into their car and speed off with the claim that they were taking them to the Achimota police station.

But on the way they stopped and pushed the motor bike rider down and took a different direction towards Awoshie in the Ga South Municipal Assembly, but on reaching a spot at Oblogo the engine of the car seized and the complainant begun shouting for help.

The prosecutor said the shouts by the complainant attracted onlooker and Addison and Opoku were arrested and sent to the Weija police station, while the other one who was holding the Pistol managed to escape arrest.

The convicts, she said admitted to the offence in their caution statement to the police and during a search conducted on them found GHC29, 390.00 out of the money robbed from the complainant.

Based on that, the prosecutor stated the two convicts were charged for the offence, while the unregistered car was impounded at the Weija police station.

After the court delivered its sentences, the two convicts were whisked away into a police van to begin their 30 years jail sentence at the Nsawam prisons.