Sekondi, March 15, GNA- A Sekondi High Court on Monday sentenced Martin Kofi Asumani, a 33-year-old small-scale miner to 50 years' imprisonment in hard labour, for robbery and murder. The court ordered that he should be sent to the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.

Martin pleaded not guilty when he first appeared before the court on February 26.

Mr. William Kpobi, a Principal State Attorney told the court that on May 14, 2001, Martin, went to the store of the deceased, Madam Mary Agyeman, a mother of five, at 1800 hours, and clubbed her to death, covered her body with empty bags in the shop and ransacked the store. Mr. Kpobi said Madam Agyeman was watching television when the suspect entered the store.

He said witnesses who saw the suspect enter the store, thought he was a customer, and therefore paid little attention to him while he collected quantities of suitcases away from the store. The prosecutor said around 2200 hours, when the victim had still not closed her store, the landlady asked one of her assistants to lock the shop.

Mr. Kpobi said 30 minutes later, the husband of Agyeman arrived at the scene and when she could not be traced, a report was made to the Police.

The prosecution said a search organized in the store led to the discovery of the body of the deceased lying in a pool of blood.

The prosecutor said the suspect fled to Tekunaso near Tarkwa after the incident adding that on August 21, the same year, an informant alerted the Police on the hideout of the suspect, who had also shot a taxi driver with a locally manufactured gun in the arm, ostensibly to snatch the vehicle at Adiembra near Assin Fosu in the Central Region. Mr. Kpobi told the court that on Oct. 31, 1996, the accused robbed his grandmother, Madam Akua Nsonowah, aged 67, of an amount of 120,000 cedis and clubbed her to death on her farm and fled. He said the convict used the same "modus operandi" on his latest victim.

Passing sentence, the judge, Mr. Justice Clemence J. Honyenugah, said the convict was a liar, and heartless.

He said the arm of the law is very long and would catch-up with individuals who make robbery their major occupation and cautioned that anyone who appears before him for robbery would be dealt with severely.