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Four men who were part of a gang that robbed a bullion van carrying cash in front of the Madina branch of Ecobank in Accra have been sentenced to 50 years� imprisonment each by an Accra High Court. The four, Kofi Afoakwah aka Not Nice or Kofi Rasta, Yaw Afoakwah aka Dadesen, Kingsley Lawani aka Benin Boy, and Richard Kafui Quist aka Lion, who in the course of their operation shot and killed G/Sgt William Quansah, a police officer guarding the van in broad daylight, made away with GH�60,000 in June 2008. The notorious robbers, whose judgment attracted heavily armed policemen to the court, were yesterday found guilty by Justice Charles Quist, the presiding judge, on two counts of conspiracy and robbery. The accused persons, who gave confession statements to the police providing details of how they committed the crime, however insisted that they were innocent of the charges when the trial judge asked if they had something to say before he passed the sentence. Justice Quist said, �I find that the prosecution proved all the ingredients of the offences of conspiracy to rob and robbery against all the accused persons. He subsequently sentenced them to 50 years on the two charges each but the sentences are to run concurrently. The facts of the case as presented to the court by Chief State Attorney Anthony Rexford Wiredu are that on June 23,2008, a group of armed robbers including the accused persons attacked and robbed a bullion van carrying cash infront of the Madina branch of the Ecobank in Accra and made away with an amount of GH�60,000. They seized an AK 47 rifle from Lance Corporal David Agbosu, a policeman on guard duty at the bank and killed another policeman guarding the bullion van, G/Sgt William Quansah, who put up a resistance before they escaped with the money in a stolen car. They later shared the booty at an uncompleted house at East Legon. On December 2008 at about 1:00am, the accused persons went on another robbery operation at Tema and in the process, one of them named Fatao was killed and an AK 47 rifle with number 6777 retrieved; but his accomplices managed to escape. The prosecutor stated that in November 2009, police had information that an AK 47 rifle was being kept in a house at Agbogba, near Madina in Accra and quickly moved in and found the said rifle. Two members of the group called Dropam and Dotse Babanawo were shot and killed when they engaged the police in a shoot-out during their arrest. The four were arrested and subsequently put before the court. The court said three of the convicts, Kofi Afoakwah aka Not Nice, Yaw Afoakwah and Kingsley Lawani confessed to participating in the robbery in their statement to the police. Yaw Afoakwah, the elder brother of Not Nice, had stated that he informed the others about the approach of the bullion van but was not part of the robbery. The judge however said even though he was not part of the robbery, it did not exonerate him from criminal liability because it was the information that he gave to his co-conspirators that enabled the group to attack the bullion van. The fourth convict, Richard Kafui Quist, who collected the AK 47 from Lance Corporal David Agbosu, the police officer on duty, denied the offence in his charge sheet and in court. However the officer identified him in court as the one who ordered him to drop his gun at gunpoint. Lance Corporal David Agbosu testified that during the robbery, he was descending from the stairs of the Ecobank building when Kafui Quist pointed a gun at him and ordered him to drop his gun or else he would kill him. He said he immediately dropped his gun and the other robbers went for the trunk containing the money from the bullion van and escaped. Emmanuel Abedu, the driver of the bullion van, corroborated the story as presented to the court. �Shaka Zulu Jailed 230yrs Richard Kwabena aka Shaka Zulu, a bouncer and a popular face on television, has been jailed by an Accra High Court for robbery. Shaka Zulu was yesterday sentenced by the Court along with three others to 30 years imprisonment each for robbery. They were said to have violently robbed a businessman, Clever Omwarihiren, at gunpoint at Baatsona on the Spintex Road in Accra. Shaka Zulu and his accomplices, Wise Gray alias Biggie, Abass Baba, a trader and Paul Owusu alias School Fees, a draughtsman, were found guilty and each handed 15 years for conspiracy to commit crime and 15 years each for robbery, after the trial judge Justice Charles Quist said he found them guilty of the offence. Both sentences are to run concurrently. In a judgment that lasted barely 10 minutes, the trial judge said for Wise Gray, who had been involved in other robberies, to have confessed to taking part in the robbery with the others, the court found it reasonable to infer that the others did take part in it. According to him, �a voluntary confession of guilt which is consistent and probable, is regarded as the most satisfactory evidence.� He said Wise Gray, in his evidence, told the court that Shaka Zulu and the accused persons had contacted and told him to help them to attack the complainant because he had cheated them in a business deal. Furthermore, the judge noted that Gray also stated that after the robbery, they shared some small cash, five laptops and other things they got from the operation among themselves. Justice Quist noted that even though the others were not immediately arrested after the operation, the arrest of Owusu alias School Fees with some of the stolen items supported the evidence of Wise Gray. Explaining further, he said the three accused persons denied taking part in the robbery but failed to convince the court that they were innocent of the offence for which they were arraigned. In addition, Justice Quist said he found the accused persons guilty of conspiracy and robbery and consequently jailed them. Clever Omwarihiren, the victim, who was robbed at his residence in Baatsona, in his evidence led by the prosecuting attorney, John Tulasi Ofori, told the court he was at home in Baatsona on June 12, 2010 with his wife when he heard a strange sound. According to him, he told his wife to lock all the doors which she did, but a couple of minutes later, he heard a sound after which four guys, three of whom wore masks, entered the house and took him to the living room. When asked whether he could identify the accused person, he answered in the affirmative and went ahead to identify the forth accused person, Paul Owusu alias School Fees and added that School Fees was the one without a mask. Mr. Ofori, who presented the facts of the case, told the court that the complainant was a Nigerian businessman resident in Ghana and lived at Baatsona in Accra. He said on June 12, 2010, the accused persons attacked the complainant at gunpoint in his home and took away his five laptop, GH�150, a wristwatch and one of his car keys and sped off with it. According to him, the complainant, his brothers and others chased the accused persons and caught up with School Fees, who was then driving the car while the other suspects who sensed danger, fled in a taxi. Explaining further, he noted that the time School Fees was arrested he had three of the five laptops on him and added that he admitted the offence and mentioned the three others to the police as those he undertook the operation with. Furthermore, he said Abass Baba was later arrested at Dansoman in connection with another robbery operation while Shaka Zulu, who is a security man and Biggie were later arrested at Nungua.