Sampson Annon
A SABOTEUR of government’s railway development project has been sentenced to jail for a total of 18 years after stealing 70 pieces of 40-feet railway lines weighing 80 pounds at the value of GH¢110,000 at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region.
Sampson Annon, a truck driver, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, causing unlawful damage and stealing, contrary to sections 23(1), 172 (1) (b) and 124 (1) of Act 29/60.
He was then sentenced to six years of hard labour in prison on each count totalling 18 years to run concurrently by the Bekwai Circuit Court presided over by Fredrick Nawurabut.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on February 22, 2019, at Asenso near Bekwai, where Annon was arrested alongside his alleged conspirator, Charles Frimpong, who denied the charges when he appeared before the court.
The prosecutor, Detective Inspector Stephen Ofori, told the court that both Annon and the accused are drivers resident in Kumasi.
According to him, on February 22, 2019, at about 2:40 pm, the duo approached someone to assist them to engage the services of a towing car to pull their truck loaded with scrap metals which had been stuck in mud.
The prosecutor narrated that the witness upon seeing the ‘scrap metals’ became suspicious and therefore lured the duo to the residence of the Bekwai Municipal officer of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) under the pretext of helping them to secure a towing car.
Inspector Ofori said the BNI officer then caused the arrest of Annon and Frimpong, who later led police to where the truck registered AS 7871-16 had been stuck.
He disclosed that security officers found the content of the Kia truck to be 70 pieces of 40-feet long railway lines weighing 80 pounds, which had been cut at the Asenso section of the railway line.
Staff of the Ghana Railway Company at Bekwai later identified the metal pieces as Ghana Railway Company property that had been cut at the Asenso section of Bekwai rail line.
Annon pleaded guilty and was sentenced but Frimpong did not plead guilty to his charges.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi