A KUMASI HIGH Court has sentenced two robbers who snatched a Nissan Pick-Up with registration number GE 2017 Z valued at $27,000, belonging to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The robbers snatched the party car at gunpoint from Alhaji Shaibu Bamba, the Brong Ahafo Regional first Vice Chairman of the party last year.

The convicts, Iddrisu Baba aka Addis Ababa, 28, an articulated truck mate and Isaac Addai aka Pozo, 31, a mechanic apprentice, both residents of Krofrom in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in hard labour.

The court, presided over by Justice Robin B. Batu, also ordered the convicts to pay for the value of the car or have their property confiscated.

The court slapped the convicts with the sentence after pleading not guilty to a charge of robbery against them. According to the prosecutor, Edward Charles Addo, on July 28, 2010, at about 6.30pm, the NPP man, who was travelling to Jachie in the Ashanti Region, was attacked by the two robbers at gunpoint at Dompoase near Jachie.

The convicts, who appeared from a nearby bush, ordered the victim to surrender the car’s ignition key and his mobile phone to them.

After taking the key, the robbers drove the car containing Alhaji Shaibu Bamba’s passport, identification cards and other items away.

The victim then lodged a complaint at the Asokwa Police Station.

All investigations conducted to retrieve the stolen vehicle and arrest the suspects proved futile. However, about three months later, the complainant, who was watching a TV3 evening news bulletin, identified the convicts when they were reported to have committed similar crimes.

Alhaji Shaibu Bamba then reported to the Regional Criminal Investigations Department (CID) which gave him an arrest warrant to Accra for the arrest of the culprits. The complainant left for Accra the next day and identified the two accused persons during an identification parade.