Eight remanded for armed robbery
The Accra Circuit Court has remanded in prison custody eight suspected armed robbers and two accomplices for allegedly robbing a teacher and his family at gunpoint at Atraco, near East Legon in Accra.
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The accused persons, on January 5, 2015, robbed Ebenezer Kofi Odei Bediako and his family of GH27, 000, jewelleries, and three mobile phones and subjected them to severe beatings.
They are Michael MacCarthy, a driver’s mate; Richmond Kwadwo Sarpong, a driver’s mate; Bright Akaminku, alias Rasta; Abass Baba, Ibrahim Alhassan, an auto mechanic; Abugri Osuman, unemployed, and Joe Ofori, a trader.
Charges
They were charged with two counts of robbery. they pleaded not guilty to the charges and their counsel application for bail was turned down by the court.
Their two accomplices, who received the stolen items from the armed robbers, were Yunus Abdul Hamid Mubarak, a fashion designer, and Ahmed Aminu, a driver’s mate.
They were charged with dishonestly receiving stolen items but they also pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The 10 accused persons were remanded to reappear on February 22, 2015.
Background
The facts are that the complainant, Ebenezer Kofi Odei Bediako, is a teacher and resident of Atraco, while the eight alleged armed robbers are friends who live in Tema and Ashaiman. Their accomplices also live in Tema.
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The prosecution told the court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, that for some time now, the eight armed robbers had been attacking people at Atraco, Zoomlion, Adentan, Madina and their environs, robbing them of their valuables.
At about 2 a.m. on January 5, 2015, the complainant and his family were asleep in their house when the eight armed robbers broke into their room, attacked them at gunpoint and subjected them to severe beatings.
They later robbed them of three mobile phones, jewelleries and cash of GH¢27,000. The complainant later reported the case to the police.
Upon intelligence, the police managed to track the user of one of the stolen mobile phones and arrested Yunus Abdul Hamid Mubarak.
When questioned, he mentioned his friend, Ahmed Aminu, as the one who sold the mobile phone to him at GH¢70. He assisted the police to arrest Mubarak, who identified MacCarthy and Sarpong as those who sold the mobile phone to them at GH¢700.
Upon interrogation, MacCarthy confessed to the robbery and mentioned Sarpong, Akaminku, Abubakar, Baba, Ibrahim, Osuman and Ofori as his accomplices.
When a search was conducted on them, 17 cartridges, a face mask and a pump action gun were retrieved from them.