A Kumasi Circuit Court presided over by Mrs. Afia Adu-Amankwa has sentenced two of the five suspected armed robbers who raided a gold crushing machine shop at Adansi Odumasi in the Ashanti Region in 2013 to 16 years’ imprisonment in hard labour.
The convicts, Godwin Aboakpole and Lucas Koromo, armed with locally-made pistols and cutlasses dispossessed the shop owner of one sack of gold quartz valued at GH₵2,500 after subjecting her, her workers and customers to severe beatings.
They were jailed after being found guilty on the charge of robbery contrary to section 149 of criminal offences Act, 1990 (Act 29) while two other alleged accomplices, Elvis Kwaku Wewuku and Yusif Sallam, were acquitted and discharged, with the fifth accomplice at large.
Presenting the facts of the case to the court, the prosecutor, Superintendent E. A. Akunnor, said the complainant in the case was a small scale miner at Obuasi while some of the suspects were galamsey operators and others unemployed.
On May 25, 2013, at about 9am, two small scale miners namely Vitus Alou and Kwame Thomas sold to the complainant one sack of gold quartz at the cost of GH₵2,500.
After buying the mineral, the complainant decided to process it into powder and just as she began the process, the convicts and their alleged accomplices stormed the place wielding weapons.
After beating the complainant, her workers and clients, the hoodlums made away with the gold quartz.
A report was made to the police resulting in the convicts’ arrest and prosecution.
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