By Dominic Adoboli, GNA
Aflao (V/R), Oct. 1, GNA – A Circuit Court at
Aflao has sentenced a Togolese national to 10 years imprisonment for robbing a
Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) female officer at knife point at Dzodze in the
Ketu North District of the Volta Region.
Christian Agbodzra, alias Togo, 30, has
pleaded not guilty to both unlawful entry and robbery.
The Court, presided over by Mr. Ali Baba
Abature, fined him GH¢1,200.00 for robbery and he will go to jail for three
years for unlawful entry.
Both sentences are to run consecutively.
The facts of the prosecution were that the
accused, an unemployed Togolese national, lived at Aflao, while the GIS officer
resided at Dzodze.
At about 0030 hours sometime in October 2016,
the GIS lady, who was awake, saw the trapdoor to her room opened and the
accused, wielding a knife, entered.
The prosecution said the accused, at knife
point ordered the officer to surrender her Techno Smart cellular phone she was
then browsing.
A struggle ensued between the two, and in the
process the accused staggered and his knife fell.
The accused nonetheless succeeded in
overpowering the female officer, pinned her unto her bed, snatched the phone
and bolted with it, but left his knife behind.
The prosecution said the Agbodzra, who
apparently came on a motorbike for the operations, was riding back to Aflao on
the bike, but luck eluded him when two commercial motor riders saw him and
suspected him to be a criminal and gave him a chase.
The commercial motor riders finally caught up
with him at the precincts of the Dzodze-Penyi Senior High School, stopped and
quizzed him, not satisfied with his answers; they arrested and escorted him to
the police at Dzodze for interrogation.
According to the prosecution, just as the
accused was handed over, the GIS officer, coincidentally arrived with the
accused person’s knife to lodge complaints with the police and there and then
made out the accused, confirming the suspicion of the two who arrested him.
The Techno Smart phone with the picture of the
GIS officer as its screen-saver was found in Agbodzra’s pocket and in the bag
he was carrying, a crowbar was found.
The accused in his caution statement admitted
entering the complainant’s room and snatching her phone but denied being armed
with a knife.
GNA