A 24-year-old individual who assaulted a student at the University of Ghana has been given a 36-year prison sentence with hard labor by an Accra Circuit Court.
According to a newspaper report by the Chronicle Newspaper dated July 13, 2023, the presiding judge, Ellen Ofei-Ayeh, who delivered the sentence yesterday, July 12, 2023, slapped the accused now convict with 18 years each for conspiracy to commit a crime and robbery. The sentences will run concurrently.
Despite pleading not guilty, the convict underwent a full trial before being found guilty of the crime.
The unemployed convict, before the sentence he was pronounced with, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, as he had a five-year-old daughter and a sick mother under his care as the breadwinner.
He also shared a background of growing up in a broken home and never having the opportunity to go to school beyond primary ‘4’
The court considered the gravitas of the offence and the completion of the full trial before reaching the verdict of guilt.
The two other accomplices, who were charged with the convict; Frank Attah Kwame Agyekum and Kofi Kwarteng alias Kofi Adwoumor, were acquitted, and discharged for lack of evidence.
The court established that Amaning conspired with Evans Kwabena Nyarko; a storekeeper who is currently at large, the perpetrator of the crime.
The prosecuting officer of the case, Chief Inspector Moses Mensah Soagede, named Joshua Asante Tuah as the complainant and a student at the University of Ghana, who lives in Haatso with his family.
According to the prosecution, on September 15, 2019, at about 2:00 am the convict and his accomplices, armed with a locally manufactured pistol, a cutlass, and a screwdriver, broke into the complainant’s house while he and his family were asleep.
The convict and his associates managed to steal Tuah’s belongings, including an HP laptop computer valued at GH₵1,800.00, a Samsung J4 mobile phone valued at GH₵710.00, and a Samsung ACC mobile phone valued at GH₵300.00 (totalling GH₵2,810.00).
The complainant was also robbed of his school certificates, ID cards and other documents.
The complainant out of fear shouted for help and was heard by his neighbours, who called the Police Information Room for assistance.
The robbers were apprehended at the scene and handed over to a Police Patrol Team who came there.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Amaning and his gang devised the plan on September 14, 2019, at 10:00 pm in Agbogbloshie. They armed themselves and proceeded to the complainant’s house, jumping the fence wall and entering through the kitchen door to carry out the robbery.
On October 10, 2019, the Accra Regional Police received information from the Nkawkaw Police about the arrest of Frank Attah Kwame Agyekum and Evans Kwabena Nyarko in connection with another robbery. They were subsequently brought to the Accra Regional CID for further investigation.
In their respective statements, Agyekum and Nyarko admitted to being accomplices of Amaning and Kofi Kwarteng (alias Kofi Adwoumor), who was still at large at the time.
On October 22, 2020, Kwarteng was arrested in Agbogbloshie, Accra, following police surveillance.
In their statements during the investigation, all four individuals admitted to being involved in the robbery at the complainant’s house on September 15, 2019, at approximately 2:00 am.