imprisonment each.
Furthermore, Kwabena Ebo, who pleaded guilty to another robbery, was sentenced to an additional 20 years.
They had at an earlier hearing pleaded with the court to give them any punishment including death, for their callous acts.
The convicts, Yaw Asamoah, 30, Kofi Yeboah, 30, Kwabena Ebo, 30, Osei Prempeh, 23, who were facing two counts of conspiracy to commit crime each in three different cases, at the last hearing pleaded guilty in two of the cases.
In view of this, when the case was called, the court presided over by Mrs. Patience Mills Tetteh convicted them on their own plea to 20 years’ imprisonment on each count but the sentences were to run concurrently.
Meanwhile, the accused persons are already serving a 17-year jail-term each on a similar offence.
The judge further made an order that a pump action gun stolen from a banker, who is a complainant, which was retrieved from the robbers, should be handed over to the owner.
With the third case in which the convicts allegedly robbed a certain Kojo Antwi, only Kwabena Ebo pleaded guilty with explanation to the crime and was subsequently handed an additional 20 years jail term.
In his explanation, Ebo who said it was not his intention to enter into robbery, observed that he had committed an offence against God, country and the judge and therefore pleaded for mercy.
“My Lord please don’t jail me. I have already been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment and would soon be arraigned before a High Court on a different charge. I have nobody. I will not do that again,†he begged. ÂÂ
However, his three other colleagues denied complicity in the matter and explained that at the last adjourned date, they pleaded guilty because the investigator made them understand that they would be set free if they did so.
They also accused the investigator of writing false facts against them.
According to them, most of the things written in the charge sheet were not correct and that it was the intention of the investigator to incriminate them.
Yaw Asamoah for instance told the court that he was the second to be arrested in connection with the cases but on the charge sheet, the investigator termed him the first accused person, which to him was wrong.
Also, Kofi Yeboah attested that the investigator wrongly stated in the charge sheet that one of the robbery incidents occurred in an uncompleted building when in actual fact it took place in a house.
The court adjourned the case to February 17, 2010 for hearing.
Facts in court stated that the convicts, Yaw Asamoah and Kofi Yeboah lived at Nkankama near Begro in the Eastern region while Ebo Kwabena and Osei Prempeh resided at Kumasi-Tanoso.
Inspector Anthony Afetsi narrated to the court that on November 30, 2009, at about 5.00am, the four accused persons, armed with a pistol, cutlasses, crow bars and pump action guns, broke into the premises of the complainant and made away with his pump action gun, one full box of cartridges, his car key, one laptop, some mobile phones and cash amounting to GH¢70.
The prosecutor further disclosed that the accused persons struck again a month later. They attacked the residents of Gbawe, robbed them of their personal belongings and killed Pastor Nii Addy of Light House Chapel before fleeing.
The prosecutor stated that they had earlier stormed the house of Martin Adjei at Red Top Donkuna, New Bortianor and robbed the occupants of GH¢1,700, five mobile phones and some personal effects of unknown value, after which they shot the leg of one Michael Agbeley.
The robbers also forcibly broke into the house of Kwadwo Antwi on November 13, 2009.
Antwi, an auto mechanic and his family, were held at gun-point whilst the robbers made away with laptops, four mobile phones, one detector machine and GH¢160. They subjected Mr. Antwi to severe beatings in the course of their operation. ÂÂ
However, luck eluded the accused persons on January 6, when they were arrested following a tip off while preparing to embark on another robbery expedition.