Two robbers jailed 60 yrs

By Helena Selby

A 61 year old businessman and a driver have been sentenced to a total of 60 years imprisonment in hard labour, by an Accra circuit court for robbing a taxi driver of his Toyota Corolla.

The accused persons, Emmanuel Kwabena Heneku and Joseph Acquah, 29, are said to have acted together with two others, who are currently at large, to rob the said vehicle with registration number GC 6169-11.

They hired the services of the taxi driver from Kaneshie to Tesano, both suburbS of Accra, but in the course of the journey strangled the driver and made away with the car.

The accused persons were charged with conspiracy to commit crime, contrary to section 23 (1) and 149 of the Criminal Offences Act 1990, as amended by the Criminal Code 2003 Act 646.

The second accused was slapped with an additional charge of robbery, contrary to section 149 of the criminal offences Act 1960, Act 29, as amended by the criminal code of  2003 Act 646.  The first accused person was as well facing the charge of dishonestly receiving.

The accused persons who had earlier on pleaded not guilty were, however, found guilty of all the charges leveled against them before the court, presided over by Mr. Francis Obiri.

The court, in its judgment, noted that the accused persons were guilty of all the charges, since they initially admitted to the offence in their caution statement, as stated in the facts.

Moreover, in the evidence of the complainant during the trial, he did mention the second accused person as the one who strangled him during the robbery attack.

Joseph Acqua, on the other hand mentioned Emmanuel Kwabena Heneku as the one who recruited them into that activity, and also the one they sent the said vehicle to, after the robbery.

The court, therefore, sentenced Emmanuel Kwabena Heneku to 10 years imprisonment and Joseph Acquah to 50 years imprisonment, both in hard labour.

The circumstance surrounding the charges are that in October 2011, at about 9:30pm, both accused persons and two other accomplices, currently at large, hired the complainant at Keneshie First Light to take them to Karldoff in Tesano, a suburb of Accra.

The State Attorney, Seth Awere-Opanyinyena told the court that on reaching a spot at Tesano Global International Church Headquarters, one of the accused persons requested the driver to stop for him to alight.

He said the driver obliged, and as soon as he stepped on his brake to stop, the three other men on board, including the second accused persons, suddenly attacked them and held the complainant’s neck.

He mentioned that they overpowered the complainant and snatched the Toyota corolla taxi cab, with registration number GC 6169-11 from him, adding that the complainant reported the case to the owner of the said Toyota corolla, Kwabena Appau Osei, Managing Director of Midland Logistics.

The state attorney, in his narration, told the court that on October 23, 2011, following a tipoff, the police investigators, including Kwabena Appau Osei, were dispatched to Cape Coast to track the accused persons.

“The accused persons were arrested at Kotokraba, a suburb of Cape Coast, while boarding the taxi cab. However, the first accused person attempted to run away but the police managed to arrest him.

The accused persons were brought to Tesano to assist in investigation. The second accused person was identified by the complainant as one of the men who attacked and snatched the said taxi cab” the prosecutor added.

He recounted that in the caution statement of the second accused, he stated that he and two others at large whom he refused to mention their names were recruited by the first accused person to snatch any car that comes their way for his goat stealing business.

According to him the second accused person further stated that after snatching the car from the complainant, he communicated with the first accused person who directed that he brings the car to Cape Coast to meet him.

 

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