Two men sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing a phone and GHC480

Crime & Punishment of Monday, March 18, 2019

Source: yen.com.gh

2019-03-18

Two men were sentenced to heavy prison terms after being found guilty of stealing a woman's purse containing her phone, personal belongings and a sum of 480 GHC.

The men, Promise Ime, 28, and Jordan Onah Ndubisi, were sentenced to 15 and 10 years respectively.

The two men pleaded guilty, but a third person, Blessing Thompson, a dishonest receptionist, pleaded not guilty by claiming that he had not taken part in the robbery.

Thompson was taken into custody and reappeared on April 11, 2019.

Citinewsroom.com reports that the prosecution told the court that the complainant, Beatrice Cudjoe, was working at the Kotoka International Airport and that on March 12, 2019, around 4 am, she was traveling to but reached a section close to KAF International. The school, Ime and Ndubisi rushed on it.

Ime allegedly fired a knife and threatened to stab the complainant if she did not return her purse.

According to the prosecution, Ime then pushed the complainant and ripped her bag containing a Samsung S7 phone, worth GH ¢ 480 000, various identity cards and other personal effects, before escaping.

However, the same day, the prosecution said at about that time, while the complainant was at the office of the chief of the police station Adenta and had filed a statement, she saw the Ime and Ndubisi about 300 meters away and identified them to the police as being those flown.

The police confronted the two men and during the search, a GHC250 and a Samsung S7 phone were found in Ndubisi.

Ime then took the police to Thompson where the GHC 120 was recovered. The volume of the sentence, however, pushed the actor and future Ghanaian politician, John Dumelo, to ask for alternatives to punish the perpetrators.

Dumelo, in a tweet of Sunday, March 17, 2019, complained that sometimes prisons and sentences were not commensurate with the crimes, but rather had to cost society more.