Court Remands 3 Foreigners for Armed Robbery

The Koforidua Community Tribunal on January 9, chaired by Mr. G.K. Addae, remanded three suspected Nigerian armed robbers in prison custody to reappear on February 13, this year, for robbing one Mr. Emmanuel Oti, a businessman at Akwatia of ?220million.

The suspected armed robbers are Felix Chikanabe, a trader, Bright Amadu Demele, a student and Kano Wusiayo, a businessman, all claiming to be Nigerians who entered the country to do business and study.

Briefing the court, the prosecutor, Superintendent Elizabeth Allandu, said the complainant, Mr. Emmanuel Oti, is a businessman and lives in Akwatia, a diamond town, while the suspects claim they are businessmen and a student.

According to Superintendent Allandu, on December 15, last year around 1:30am, the complainant was awoken by sudden noise in his house and he later realised that armed men had invaded the house and were shooting sporadically.

Accordingly, the armed men forced his door open, accosted the complainant and started to ransack the room.

They asked the complainant to handover all the money in his room and after firing a few shots into the ceiling, they succeeded in taking away eleven boxes containing several millions of cedis.

The prosecutor said the robbers, who were armed with two locally manufactured guns, took Mr. Oti's unregistered saloon car, packed the boxes in it and fled.

She continued that an alarm was raised and the residents quickly mobilised and managed to arrest three of the robbers,whom they set ablaze and killed them instantly.

She told the court that in the early hours of the same day, Felix Chikanabe and Bright Amadu Dumele were arrested, brutally tortured and handed over the police, while Kano Wusiayo was later arrested in Osenase, near Akwatia.

Two shotguns were retrieved from the scene by the police, the court was told.

On December 28, last year, an identification parade was conducted and the suspects were identified among eight people suspected of being among the people who took part in the robbery at dawn.

According to Superintendent Allandu, Bright Amadu Dumele was found with bullet wounds at his back but he did not tell how he sustained the wounds.

An x-ray test conducted at the Koforidua Central Hospital revealed that 20 pellets were found embedded in his body.

Mr. Emmanuel Oti later estimated the lost money at ?250million. Rejecting an appeal for bail, Mr. Addae said it is the law that accused persons are presumed innocent until it is otherwise proved, but armed robbery is one of the cases where bail is refused as a matter of law if the accused can be tried within a reasonable time.

He noted that the court is of the view that the accused can be tried within a reasonable time.

He further noted that the facts of the case indicate that three other accused persons have been lynched and burnt to death, so it will be in the interest of the accused persons to be kept out of society.

The accused persons have told the court that they are not Ghanaians so the court has the fear that should they be granted bail they may abscond, the chairman explained.

The court ordered that the complainant's car, which has been retrieved from the accused, should be given back to him.