Farmer incarcerated for car theft

The Accra Circuit Court, on Wednesday, sentenced a farmer to 30 years’ imprisonment for robbing a taxi driver of his car at Miotso, near Accra.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge of robbery but after full trial of the case, the court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, found him guilty and sentenced him accordingly.

The judge said the prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt.

He said robbery was becoming rampant in the country, hence the need for the youth to be adequately educated on its dangers and consequences. Facts on the case

Prosecuting, Assistant State Attorney, Dorcas Oti, said on July 29, 2012, at about 10.30am, the complainant, Kwaku Boateng, who was a taxi driver and driving a Nissan Almera taxi with registration number GW 7489-12, received a phone call from the accused person, Dauda Salisu alias Oseley, who had earlier engaged the services of the complainant. 

The accused told the complainant to meet him at Lapaz, a suburb of Accra.

The complainant drove and met the accused person at the agreed destination.

The accused person boarded the vehicle and asked the complainant to drive him to Miotso, around the main campus of Central University College at Prampram. 

The prosecution said on their way to Miotso, the accused person asked the complainant to make a stopover around Dawhenya so that he (the accused) could load his concrete pillars which he intended to erect on his plot of land at Miotso onto the vehicle.

The complainant did as requested by the accused and they continued the journey afterwards.

When they got to a section of the road after the main campus of the Central University College, the accused asked the complainant to stop and help him offload the pillars onto his purported plot of land, nearby a bush.

Upon entering the bush with the concrete pillars, the accused pulled a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at the complainant. He ordered him to lie down.

The accused then tied the complainant up with a rope and demanded the key to the car and drove it away.

The accused person was later arrested at Agona Swedru in the Central Region in connection with another crime, and was identified by the complainant at the Greater Accra Regional Police Command.