The five-member gang of robbers who trailed and robbed a marketing clerk of Koala Shopping Centre were yesterday jailed a total of 150 years with hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court.

They are Michael Edoe Ahiataku; Frederick Sedro Kwame aka Fred - private security guards - Gilbert Osabutey aka Obolo, a shop supervi­sor at Koala; Stanley Obaliko aka Mohammed Sulemana and Oko Quarcoe alias Akpene, unemployed.

The court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, after seven months of hearing, found the five culpable, although they had initially vehement­ly denied the charges.

Sentencing

Sentencing the convicts, the judge stated that the prosecution, led by Chief Superintendent Duuti Tuaruka, was able to prove its case against the accused persons.

He was emphatic that irrespective of the inconsistencies in the evidence of the accused persons, there was suf­ficient evidence that the accused per­sons conspired to rob the victim.

Mr. Tandoh noted that the con­spirators were in two-fold - the ones working in and around Koala Shop­ping Centre, led by Michael, Fred and Obolo and those outside comprising Sulemana Okoe and Akpene.

In the view of the court, Michael acted as a "liaison officer" for the other members of the gang.

The judge said the defence by Okoe that he was not part of the rob­bery could not hold, adding that he did not only carry Sulemana to the scene on his motorbike but used his vehicle to cross the victim to "over­come her resistance."

Mr. Tandoh stated that unfortu­nately, the contents of the bag the convicts succeeded in snatching from Lydia were "contrary to their expec­tation."

The circuit court judge argued that on the charge of possession of firearms, Sulemana failed to produce any authentic document to support the possession.

On the offence of causing harm, the court said it was not in doubt that Sulemana inflicted gunshot wounds on Lydia.

National Award

While commending the investiga­tion team, the prosecution team and all parties in the case, the trial judge contended that the taxi driver, who used his vehicle to knock down Okoe and Sulemana must be given a national award.

He praised the cabbie for showing courage but advised others who wish to put out such acts of bravery to must "measure their faith" and the God they serve.

Mr Tandoh advised that trustwor­thy taxi drivers ought to be used to gather security information.

He said the court had taken into consideration the plea for mitigation from George Asamaney and Joseph Turkson, lawyers for the convicts.

Major Role

He explained that those who played a major role must receive a bigger punishment and vice versa.

The court said Michael, Fred and Sulemana played a key role in the robbery.

The judge accordingly slapped them and Okoe 28 years each with hard labour and 20 years for Obolo.

On the charge of robbery, Sulem­ana and Okoe were jailed for 39 and 35 years respectively, while Sulemana had an additional one year for caus­ing harm and possessing firearms.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

The court also ordered the destruction of the exhibits three months after the judgement under the supervision of the registrar of the court.

Charges

The five persons were arraigned before court for robbing Lydia on Jan­uary 9, this year at about 8am, of her Nokia phone worth È»800, a black ladies' bag valued at È»200, a Koala ID card, invoices and È»100.

Sulemana and Okoe were also charged with intentionally and unlawfully causing grievous harm to Lydia.

Sulemana faced an additional charge of possessing one automatic MAB foreign pistol with no PA151674189, six 9mm ammunition and five empty cartridges.