Two students of the Accra Academy Senior High School were yesterday remanded in custody by the Accra Circuit Court for allegedly engaging in a daylight robbery at Dzorwulu.
They were said to have tied their victim with a rope and locked him up in the cubicle of a shop before abandoning him in the toilet.
Adusu Benjamin, 19, and Obeng Francis Akoi, 18, are alleged to have gone to the Papish Couture Boutique with two others now at large about 1 p.m. on December 8, 2011, ostensibly to shop but ended up robbing the attendant of sales amounting to GH�1,130 and several other items valued at GH�13,830.
Their accomplices on the run are Richard Anane and Braimah Mohammed, whom the police are making frantic efforts to apprehend.
The four friends are said to have visited the shop first to enquire about the prices. Then they returned later to lure the attendant to the cubicle with pistols and machetes.
Luck, however, eluded them when they attempted to escape in a taxi.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to rob and robbery and are to reappear on December 28, 2011.
The court ordered the police to liaise with the authorities of Accra Academy to apprehend the two other students on the run.
The court, presided over by Mr Eric Kyei Baffour, refused bail applications made by counsel for the accused persons, saying that although the accused persons were young, once the offences were not bailable, the court�s discretion to grant bail in the matter had been taken away by Section 96 (7) of the Criminal Procedure Act, Act 30.
Prosecuting, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Kofi Blagodzi, said on the day of the incident, the accused persons, together with those on the run, after going to the shop for the second time had their bags strewn around their backs and again demanded the prices of some of the goods on display.
He said in the process, they lured the attendant into the cubicle, after threatening him with locally manufactured pistols and machetes, and tied him with a rope before they made away with the items.
The items were 14 pairs of shoes, 17 round neck T-shirts, a pair of jeans trousers, three waist belts, seven pairs of spectacles, 13 shirts, a quantity of custom jewellery, among others.
Mr Blagodzi said the accused persons then locked up their victim in the toilet of the shop and absconded with their booty, but the taxi in which they tried to escape was stopped by passers-by and they were arrested with the help of a policeman on duty nearby.
They were subsequently handed over to a police patrol team that also handed them over to the Kotobabi Police.
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