East Legon Accident: Bishop Salifu Amoako's son gets 6 months sentence

The Family and Juvenile Court in Accra has sentenced the 16-year-old boy who rammed into another vehicle at East Legon, killing two persons as a result, to six months at the Senior Correctional Centre. 

That was after the juvenile, who had originally pleaded not guilty, changed his plea to guilty to eight counts of manslaughter, negligently causing harm, dangerous driving, and driving without a licence.

The 16-year-old was subsequently convicted on his plea at the court presided over by Bernice Mensimah Ackon.

The six-month jail term is the highest punishment prescribed by the Juvenile Justice Act 2003 (Act 653) for a juvenile offender charged with manslaughter.

As part of his sentencing, the juvenile is to sign an undertaking not to drive until he turns 18 years, the minimum age for driving in the country.

Again, he is to report to Probation Officers every Friday. 

Meanwhile, both Bishop Amoako and the mother of the convict have been slapped with a combined fine of GH¢12,000 for failing to control their son.

They are to sign an undertaking to be responsible for the proper upbringing of their son.

In addition to this, Bishop Salifu Amoako will pay for the damages of properties destroyed, including a light pole valued over GH¢8,000. 

Prosecution’s facts

The facts presented by Assistant State Attorney, Ebenezer Yaw Acquah, were that despite his age and his lack of a valid driver's licence, his family members regularly gave him access to cars that they owned and permitted him to drive.

On October 12, 2024, the prosecutor said the family threw a birthday party for their son at an event centre in East Legon.

During the party, he said the juvenile asked one Linda Bonsu Bempah, a sales and personal assistant of Elyon Amoako, a 25-year-old elder brother of the convict, for the keys to his mother's Jaguar F-Pace Sports car.

Linda during her supervisory duties at the party had been given the keys to the vehicles for safe-keeping.

While the party wore on, the 16-year-old asked Linda to give him the keys to the car and she did. 

He took the car and drove with one of his friends to meet other friends who were waiting in two sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

The three cars formed a convoy, led by the 16-year-old in his mother's car, and drove through the East Legon area.

The prosecutor added that at a section of the Dzane-Ashie Road, despite the presence of other vehicles on the road, the convict decided to show off the speed of the Jaguar F-Pace Sport by driving at top speed recklessly, and in no time had approached a T-junction at the Mensah Wood Avenue with no regard for other road users.

At the junction, just as the driver of an Acura saloon vehicle, Joseph Ackah, had slowed down to navigate the turn, the “16-year-old rammed into the rear of the Acura, a violent and destructive collision that propelled both vehicles flying across the street and smashing into the wall of the house opposite the junction, destroying an ECG pole in the process.

“Both cars immediately caught fire which turned into a raging inferno in no time. The accused person managed to force himself out of the vehicle he was driving,and his passenger too.

“Joseph Ackah had been driving his boss' two daughters — one of them a toddler — and their friends who were both 12 years old. They were trapped. Bystanders rushed to the scene with fire extinguishers but were unable to suppress the flames,” he said.

The driver forced his door open and fell into the flames that were already around the car before he was dragged to safety, the prosecutor told the court.

One of the volunteers, the prosecutor added, pulled the toddler out of the burning car, while others managed to free her sister from the back seat.

Their friends, however, remained trapped and as the flames intensified the volunteers had to give up their efforts, looking on as the car burnt down, unable to save the two remaining girls.

The prosecutor told the court that the investigation that followed established that the convict had been driving in a manner that fell way below what was expected of any competent and careful driver, and in such a reckless manner that it endangered the lives of both vehicles and pedestrians along the road.