Two unemployed young men were yesterday sentenced to a total of 30 years by an Accra circuit court for robbery.
They are Derrick Asare aka Blood Money and Michael Lamptey Lantei aka Accra Boy.
The court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, acquitted and discharged the third accused person, one Issah Issaka aka Tina.
This is because in the view of the court the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector K. Adu, failed to establish any grounds to warrant the conviction of the (3rd) accused.
The three are said to have conspired to rob and robbing the owners of two taxis with registration numbers GY 1084-13 and GL 164-13 an amount of GH¢30,000 each last year.
The trio, according to the prosecution, also on May 16, 2015 snatched a taxi with registration GW 9742-14 and GH¢200 at gunpoint from one Odum Ahmed.
Again on March 28 last year, the three robbed a taxi registered GR 412-14 an amount of GH¢2,500, a Samsung mobile phone and GH¢200 belonging to one Jonathan Opoku.
Although the three vehemently denied the charges, the court after full trial, found Blood Money and Accra Boy guilty of the four-count charges of robbery.
Sentencing the two, the judge said the action of the two was uncalled for and ought to be punished to indicate the displeasure society attaches to the action of the convicts.
At the initial stages of the trial, the prosecution said all the complainants are taxi drivers in Accra.
On May 17 at about 11pm, Blood Money and Accra Boy charted the taxi of Solomon Oduro, a complainant, from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to Odorkor Tipper but on reaching a spot near Osei Kwame, Blood Money turned the ignition key of the car with registration number GL 164-13.
Accra Boy, according to the prosecution, pulled a knife in the process, inflicted wounds on the driver and ordered him to surrender the car and the keys or be killed.
The two pulled out the driver and succeeded in robbing Solomon of the car while Tina was waiting.
The accused persons entered the taxi in an attempt to escape with it but could not move it. Solomon raised an alarm and a mob assisted in arresting Blood Money and Accra Boy but Tina escaped.
While investigation into the current case was ongoing, the other complainants turned up in turns to lodge complainants against the convicts, insisting they had also been robbed of their taxies using similar modus operandi.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com