I saw policeman emerge from bush on day of robbery- Witness

Cape Coast, July 22, GNA- A self-employed man resident at Anomabu, Mr Kofi Opoku, alias Isaac Aidoo, on Tuesday told a high court at Cape Coast that he saw ex-police Constable Armah Schandorf emerge from the bush near the Anomabu Beach Resort on the day armed robbers attacked a cashier of the Resort. He was giving evidence in a case in which, Schandorf and five others have been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery. The five are Samuel Ghartey, driver, Emmanuel Oduro, security man, both of the beach resort, Kwadwo Addai, Kwesi Fosu and Daniel Owusu. Schandorf, Ghartey, Oduro, Fosu and Owusu have pleaded not guilty while Addai pleaded guilty with explanation to conspiracy to commit robbery and guilty to robbery.

Led in evidence by Mr Okyere Antwi, a Principal State Attorney, Mr Opoku told the court that he lives near the beach Resort and that on the day of the robbery, he was standing by the roadside at about 0630 hours when he saw Schandorf emerge from the bush to join another man then standing by the road. He said he approached them and greeted Schandorf and walked away but when he turned back he found that Schandorf and the other man had disappeared. He went to the resort where he asked a security man there if Schandorf and other man had been there but he was told they had not.

Opoku said he was at the beach around 1000 hours when he heard there had been a robbery and Mr Mathew Mensah, the cashier, had been killed. ''I suspected Schandorf and reported him to the police.'' Another witness, Chief Inspector Kwadwo Ampah of the Jukwa Police Station, told the court that he was on duty at the police check-point at Moree that day with six other policemen when Ghartey drove up to lodge a complaint. He said Ghartey, who was driving a Kia van w told him that he was taking his accountant to the bank when armed robbers attacked them at Akatakyiwa, near Yamoransa. He looked into the vehicle and saw Mr. Mensah lying on a seat bleeding profusely so he asked Ghartey to take him to the hospital.

Dr Edwin Quaynor, a pathologist at the Central Regional Hospital, told the court that the late Mr Mensah bled to death due to gunshot wounds he sustained. He said Mr Mensah died due to "severe chest and abdominal injuries through gun-shot" and this had caused damage to his lung, liver and kidney.

Sergeant George Duah of the Anomabu Police Station said Schandorf had told him on the previous day, April 27, that he had obtained permission from the station officer to travel to Accra for his salary on the 28th. During cross-examination Schandorf, who had pleaded with the court to engage counsel for him because his relatives had refused to do so, told the court that both Opoku and Sergeant Duah lied in their evidence.