Two jailed for robbery

Accra, Sept. 10, GNA - Two persons who attacked and robbed policemen on duty and bolted with an AK 47 rifle at the Songhor Salt Factory three years ago were on Wednesday sentenced to 25 years imprisonment each by a High Court in Accra.

A six-member jury found Jerry Moore, a Nigerian trader and Dominic Nii Lamptey, a footballer, guilty. A member of the jury dissented. The court, presided over by Mr Justice G. A. Aryeetey stated that their sentence takes effect from February 2001.

Sentencing them, the judge noted that the prosecution had been able to establish the charges of conspiracy and three counts of robbery levelled against them.

The court said it was of the view that Moore could not put up sufficient defence against the charge levelled against him. It said Moore only told the court that he visited his brother's friend at Lome, Togo.

On his way back to Accra, the driver stopped without any explanation and he therefore, decided to walk along the road but was arrested by a mob.

On his part, Lamptey, through his counsel, stated that he was mentally derailed and knew nothing about the offence.

He added that he also went to Togo to play football but run out of money and decided to walk to Accra and the mob arrested him. The court noted that a doctor from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital told the court that Lamptey was on admission at the hospital in 1994 but absconded after two days.

The doctor said Lamptey could recover from his mental illness if he stayed away from drugs for two weeks.

"If the two convicts knew nothing of the offence how come they were all arrested at the same place and an AK 47 rifle as well as their clothes were retrieved from the bush near by,?" the judge asked. The facts of prosecution are that on November 26, 2000 Constable Mensah and Constable Erasmus Amegaglo were on duty at the Songhor Salt Factory at Ada.

At about 0100 hours, Isaac Kugladzi, a driver of the factory, was suddenly attacked by a group of four armed men. They wounded him with sticks and other offensive weapons and robbed him of 240,000 cedis. The mob also attacked Alex Ampofo who tried to assist one Duworshie, who was being assaulted but the number of the assailants increased.

The assailants rushed on the two policemen. During the struggle Amegaglo collapsed and they took his AK47 rifle and 80,000 cedis. In February 2001, Moore and Lamptey were arrested at Dawa on the Accra-Aflao road for a similar offence and were taken to the Tema Regional Criminal Investigation Department. They were carrying the AK 47 rifle they took from Constable Erasmus Amegaglo.