A footballer, Mohammed Razak and an auto-mechanic, Isaac Odoom, who snatched a Toyota Belta saloon car from an online driver at Klagon near Tema, have been handed a 20-year-sentence each by an Accra Circuit Court.
The convicts who were charged with robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime, pleaded guilty to the charges and were convicted on their own plea.
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Maxwell Ayim, told the court presided over by Mrs Adelaide Abui Keddy that the complainant, Mr Jones Adu, resided at Amasaman in Accra, while Razak, alias Buhari, lived at Mallam and Odoom lived at Kasoa.
According to C/ I Ayim, several car-snatching incidents had been recorded on the Spintex Road, Community 18, Klagon and their environs and that the mode of operation of the hijackers was tying the victims with a nylon rope and stealing their cars.
He said in one of such instances, a driver was strangled to death, after his neck was tied against a vehicle’s headrest by the hijackers.
The court heard that on June 21, this year, at 2.45 a.m. Mr Adu was heading from Lapaz towards the Achimota Overheard when the convicts who were standing by a car park near the pedestrian bridge at Achimota, signalled him to stop. The prosecutor said the two asked Mr Adu to take them to the Lashibi football park and agreed on a fee of GH¢60. Razak proceeded to sit in the back seat, while Odoom sat in the front passenger seat.
They then directed Mr Adu to the Klagon, Monkey forest. Upon reaching there, they asked him to negotiate a U-turn which he obliged and waited for them to pay the fare.
Razak told him he would pay the fare through mobile money and in the process, Odoom
switched off the car’s ignition and seized the key. He then used a nylon robe to tie Mr Adu’s head against the headrest of the car seat in a bid to strangle and overpower him.
In the process, Mr Adu managed to bite one of Odoom’s fingers.
C/Inspector Ayim said the convicts overpowered Mr Adu, shoved him out of the car and sped off with an amount of GH¢1050 and an Infinix mobile phone valued at GH¢ 1,500. Mr Adu was later spotted by a
Good Samaritan who assisted him to the Klagon police station to lodge a complaint. The court heard that the owner of the car, a witness in the case, was subsequently informed and upon tracking the car, they realised that it was heading towards Suhum in the Eastern Region.
C/Inspector Ayim said with the assistance of the police, the car was tracked to Effiduase, a suburb of Koforidua.
It was later retrieved and the convicts were taken to the Klagon police station. Upon interrogation, the two admitted to the offence, adding that they also robbed Mr Adu of GH¢100 which they used to buy fuel to travel to Effiduase.
The convicts also claimed they left a bag containing the Infinix mobile phone at Koforidua.
The two admitted to the offence in their respective caution statements before an independent witness.