Three Rob Magistrate

A male porter and an unemployed man were yesterday put before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly attacking and robbing a magistrate and a mechanic of their personal effects at gunpoint. The magistrate, Suleimana White Abdulai, was robbed of a bag containing documents, one pen drive, an MP3 recorder valued at GH�50, his Ghanaian passport and other items by Mohammed Ali and Richard Amankwa Annor, the suspects. Their alleged accomplice, Andrew Abugri, was charged with abetment of crime, receiving and dishonestly receiving the alleged stolen items and he pleaded not guilty. The accused persons were charged with the offence of conspiracy to commit crime and two counts of robbery. Both denied any wrongdoing. The trial judge, Francis Obiri, had the accused persons remanded in police custody while the case was adjourned to June 12, 2012. Kofi Blagodzi, the prosecuting officer, told the court that the complainants were a magistrate and a mechanic who are residents of Nungua and Mempeasem respectively. The first accused is a porter and the second, an unemployed man while the third accused person is a trader. On March 20, 2012, at about 10:15, the magistrate was attacked by the first and second accused who emerged from a nearby bush at IPS junction near Legon and robbed him of his bag containing some documents, his passport MP3 Recorder and ATM card among others. He said after attacking the magistrate, the accused persons ran into the bush while their victim rushed to the Legon Police Station to report the matter. The police officer noted that the University of Ghana Security Patrol team drove immediately to the scene of the crime and met the accused persons waiting at the bus stop to board a vehicle. The porter was arrested while the unemployed man managed to escape. A search conducted on the porter revealed the stolen items including mobile phones and pen drives. The prosecutor stated that when interrogated, Ali said the other items were stolen the previous night. The next day when the magistrate showed up at the police station, he identified some of the items as his. The police officer stated that the second complainant soon went and reported a robbery by two men wielding knives and described the scene of the crime which was exactly where the magistrate was robbed. Mr Blagodzi observed that the porter later took the police to Ayigbe Town near Korle-Bu and identified the second accused person as his accomplice and he was arrested. He said the second complainant later identified the two accused persons as those who robbed him after which the two then led the police to a bush near Ghana Hostels to retrieve the stolen items. The unemployed man told the police that Abugri, the third accused person, gave him a pistol to rob an allegation which the third accused denied.