The Accra Circuit Court has sentenced an ex-convict to 35 years� imprisonment with hard labour for robbery. Nana Agyeman Opoku, alias Nana Yaw, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to rob and robbery, but after a full trial of the case, the court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, found him guilty.
He was sentenced to 20 years� imprisonment for conspiracy to rob and 35 years for robbery. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Facts of case
Prosecuting, Chief Superintendent Duuti Tuareka told the court last Tuesday that the complainant, Joseph Annor, an IT technician who lives together with his family at Sarpeiman, near Amasaman, said for some time now armed robbers had been terrorising residents of Amasaman.
He said at 2 a.m. on September 9, 2014, Nana Opoku and an accomplice, Frank Sarpong, now deceased, armed with two pistols and other offensive implements, went to the complainant�s house at Sarpeiman to rob him.
The complainant heard his dog barking but he did not come out. Opoku waited till 6 a.m. when the complainant and his family came out of their apartment and attacked them. Opoku and his accomplice pointed their guns at Annor and marched him back into his room.
According to the prosecutor, Opoku tied Annor�s hands at his back with a rope and subjected his family to severe beatings.
Items stolen
The robbers ransacked Annor�s room and robbed him of three laptops, an Ipad, five mobile phones, two wedding rings, assorted jewellery $2,100 and GH�4,500.
Chief Supt Tuareka said while Annor was on his way to the Amasaman Police Station to report the robbery, spotted Opoku on the street of Sarpeiman and raised an alarm.
Opoku and his accomplice took to their heels, amid the firing of shots, and some residents of the area, together with Annor, pursued the robbers. They arrested the robbers, while in possession of the booty, and subsequently handed them over to the police.
The robbers sustained injuries in the course of their arrest, from which Sarpong died later at the Amasaman Government Hospital.
<<Print>>