The Juaso Circuit Court has sentenced a 25-year-old Fulani herdsman to 40 years imprisonment for highway robbery.

Osmanu Moro together with five others, now on the run attacked a Kumasi bound “OA Travel and Tour” passenger bus on the outskirt of Konongo last March, and seized an unspecified amount of money and other valuables from the travellers.

He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery.

Police Chief Inspector Joseph Obeng, told the court presided over by Justice S.K. Sarpong Appiah that, the complainant is the driver of the bus whilst the convict is a herdsman at Ejura.

On March 3, at about 0100 hours, Moro and five other accomplices armed with pump action and single barrel guns blocked the Kumasi-Accra highway and robbed the driver of the said bus and its passengers of their monies and valuables.

The police highway patrol team received information about the robbery and quickly moved to the scene where they engaged the robbers in fierce gun battle.

The robbers, overwhelmed by the firepower of the police fled into the bush.

The prosecution said barely a week after the incident the police were tipped off that Moro was nursing a gunshot wound at Ejura and was arrested.

He was sent to the Konongo-Odumase Government hospital where medical examination confirmed the wound was indeed sustained through gunshot.

He was later identified by one of the robbery victims when publicly paraded alongside other suspected criminals by the police.**