COURT JAILS 3 ARMED ROBBERS 180 YEARS (SPREAD)

THE Kumasi Circuit Court has sentenced three armed robbers to 180 years with hard labour.
The convicts, Isahaku Abubakar, 28; Aminu Mohammed, 24, and Gideon Adjei, alias Nana Yaw, 31, undertook two robbery expeditions on October 5, 2009 and October 8, 2009.
Each of the robberies carried a sentence of 30 years for each of the convicts.
Another man, Alhassan Nifal Bobdal, mentioned in the case for selling a locally manufactured pistol to the robbers, was jailed 25 years for abetment of crime.
According to the prosecution, about 10 p.m. on October 8, 2009, Isahaku hired a taxi, with registration number AS 7431-09, from Asafo to Bantama in Kumasi.
On the way to Bantama, Adjei and Aminu joined the taxi and the three men attacked the driver with a locally made pistol and snatched the taxi, together with cash of GH¢433, from him.
The robbers drove the vehicle away but it ran into a ditch around South Suntreso.
The prosecution said Isahaku sustained serious injuries but Adjei and Aminu managed to escape.
Before the accident, the driver of the taxi had reported the robbery to the police and so on hearing of the accident, the police rushed to the scene.
When it turned out that the taxi was the stolen vehicle, the police arrested Isahaku and took him first to hospital for treatment.
It stated that Isahaku later led the police to arrest Adjei and Aminu and, upon interrogation, they mentioned Bobdal as the one who had supplied the gun to them.
Bobdal was also arrested.
In the other case, which happened on October 5, 2009, Isahaku, Adjei and Aminu attacked one Lucy Afram, a trader at Atwima Boko, near Kumasi, in her store and made away with assorted provisions valued at about GH¢3,000, two mobile phones and cash of GH¢110.
After robbing the woman, they sped off in a waiting taxi, but the victim lodged a complaint with the police.
On October 15, 2009, the woman went to the police station to follow up on the case, where she spotted Adjei and showed him to the police as one of the people who had robbed her.
Adjei later mentioned Isahaku and Aminu as the other persons who had embarked on the robbery.