The Osino District Court in the Fanteakwa South District, Eastern Region, has released 15 members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on bail in connection with a fire incident at the Electoral Commission (EC) office in Asuboi, Ayensuano Constituency.
The event occurred on December 10, 2024, when the group, known as the Ayensuano Concerned Youth, protested the declaration of Ida Adwoa Asiedu as the newly elected MP for the area. During the demonstration, the EC office was set on fire.
The accused individuals, arrested and charged with arson, were each granted bail of GH₵20,000 with one surety. They are expected to return to court on January 14, 2025. Despite objections from the prosecution, who raised concerns about ongoing investigations and potential interference, the court, led by His Worship Salifu Bugri Ayagiba, decided to grant the bail.
The prosecution, represented by Detective Chief Inspector Kamal Salifu Gumah, argued that the suspects might hinder the investigation.
“The police alleged that some of the NDC members had gone to demolish the EC office at Ayensuano, so we had to come to court to help them and by God’s grace, we have been able to secure bail for them. We will come back to the case on January 14 2025.”
“In as much as they have been granted bail, The court has asked them to report to the Kibi police commander to ensure that they are still available. Everyone was granted 20,000gh bail. All the fifteen people were granted bail today.”
“These are all accusations so the evidence is the only thing that shows they did what they are been accused of, until then it is just a mere accusation. If the police can gather evidence, fine if not, the case will be rubbished,” he added.
However, the defence countered, assuring the court of their clients’ cooperation with the process, as they are well-known community members.
In the end, the court agreed with the defence and granted the accused bail.
Two individuals who swindled a Kumasi businessman out of GH¢1,700,000 have been sentenced to 10 years in prison each in absentia by an Adentan Circuit Court.
Prince Kyei Bennett and Samuel Nutsugah deceived the complainant, Eric Coffie, by pretending to sell him a bottle of schnapps filled with mercury.
The two were sentenced after they stopped attending court proceedings.
Bennett, a 48-year-old businessman, and Nutsugah, a 58-year-old unemployed man, were charged with conspiracy and fraud by false pretenses. They both denied the charges.
Judge Mrs. Sedinam Awo Kwadam found them guilty after the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Maxwell Lanyo, presented evidence and witnesses.
The court sentenced Bennett and Nutsugah to five years for conspiracy and ten years each for fraud by false pretenses, with the sentences to run concurrently.
The prosecution previously informed the court that Bennett lived in Adjen Kotoku, while Nutsugah resided in Kumasi, Ashanti Region.
In April 2017, Nutsugah approached Coffie, claiming he was selling schnapps bottles containing mercury.
Nutsugah introduced Bennett as his business partner during this encounter.
Nutsugah later informed Coffie that he had secured the bottle with mercury and suggested that rituals were necessary to activate its full potential.
Nutsugah promised Coffie that if he helped with the spiritual cleansing and the bottle reached its full mercury level, he would receive five million US dollars and a four-bedroom house.
The prosecution revealed that Bennett and Nutsugah successfully extracted various sums of money from Coffie, totaling GH¢1,700,000.
The court learned that Bennett and Nutsugah later delivered a bag to Coffie, claiming it contained money.
The two told Coffie they had sold the bottle to a spiritualist and that the money in the bag needed to undergo rituals before it could be used.
Coffie took them to a guesthouse in Adjiriganor, where the bag was stored.
The prosecution stated that Bennett and Nutsugah demanded additional funds from Coffie to purify the money bag.
After receiving the money, they conducted several spiritual purification rites.
They also requested a white dove, a black-and-white ram, and other items, which Coffie provided.
However, the convicts failed to perform the promised rituals, dismissing the dove as painted.
The bag of money was left at the hotel when Coffie could not complete the purification process.
Police learned of the situation, went to the hotel, and retrieved the bag.
When the bag was opened in the presence of the convicts, only sawdust was found inside.
In his caution statement, Bennett admitted to receiving GH¢800,000 from Coffie, while Nutsugah claimed he could not recall the exact amount he had taken.
A former accounts clerk (bursar) of a school in Accra, Charles Twumasi, who was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for allegedly defiling a 12-year-old pupil and impregnating her but was acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal has shared the harrowing experience he faced while spending seven years in prison despite being innocent.
“The police came to the school where I work. They ransacked my office. I don’t close my office. They came for me and said I needed to be interrogated. I went with them. I was just made to sit there and I never returned home. I was initially sentenced to 10 years.
“I made an appeal, and 5 more years were added,” Twumasi recounted how his ordeal began.
He is now in his 40s.
Mr. Twumasi was accused of defiling the girl in September 2012 when she went to pay her feeding fee at the school’s accounts office. He had been on remand and in prison for seven years until his discharge and acquittal on February 13 this year.
The Court of Appeal unanimously held that there was no evidence linking him to the alleged defilement and that some evidence was distorted to aid his conviction. The court found that the medical evidence indicated the victim was defiled in June 2012, allegedly by a teacher known as Nash, and not in September 2012 as alleged against Mr. Twumasi.
Twumasi’s lawyer argued for his acquittal, pointing out inconsistencies in the testimonies of the victim, her mother, and the headmistress regarding when Twumasi was mentioned as a suspect. The court also noted that there was no direct evidence, such as medical evidence, to prove that the victim was defiled in September 2012.
The case was initiated in November 2012, with criminal proceedings against both Nash and Twumasi. Nash absconded and never appeared before the court. Twumasi pleaded not guilty and denied defiling the girl.
Twumasi appealed against his conviction in 2014, but the High Court dismissed his appeal in 2017 and increased his sentence from 10 to 15 years. He then appealed to the Court of Appeal in 2017, arguing that the trial court judge erred in convicting and sentencing him, and that the sentence was excessive and harsh.
The Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit and discharge Mr. Twumasi highlights the importance of thorough investigation and consistent evidence in criminal cases.
In September 2012, Charles Twumasi, an accounts clerk (bursar) at a school in Accra, was accused of defiling a 12-year-old pupil who had gone to pay her feeding fee at the school’s accounts office. The girl later became pregnant, leading to Twumasi’s arrest and subsequent conviction to 15 years’ imprisonment.
However, the Court of Appeal has recently acquitted and discharged Twumasi, citing lack of evidence linking him to the alleged defilement. The court noted that the medical evidence indicated the victim was defiled in June 2012, allegedly by a teacher known as Nash, not in September 2012 as claimed against Twumasi.
The court also highlighted inconsistencies in the testimonies of the victim, her mother, and the headmistress regarding when Twumasi was mentioned as a suspect. The mother initially stated that only Nash had defiled her daughter, but later claimed the victim also mentioned Twumasi. The headmistress’s testimony about the sequence of events further contributed to the inconsistencies.
Twumasi’s lawyer argued for his acquittal, emphasizing these inconsistencies and the lack of direct evidence linking Twumasi to the defilement in September 2012. The Court of Appeal ultimately ruled in Twumasi’s favor, overturning his conviction and ordering his release.
Now, Mr Twumasi believes he was set up. He noted that during trials, he was optimistic about being released since he was never cuffed.
While in prison, he noted that he almost gave up, but his 2-month-old child gave him hope. His wife abandoned him since she did not believe him. According to him, it was not an easy period in life as family almost abandoned him.
Below is the video where Twumasi shares his experience in prison.
Three armed robbers convicted for a November 2022 attack on a vehicle owned by Accurate Giant Company in Tewobabi, Adansi Asokwa district of Ashanti, have been sentenced to a total of 60 years for stealing 40,500 GHC.
The convicted individuals are Emmanuel Blay (28), Ibrahim Adams (26), and Stephen Sarpong (23). Two others, Martin Asante (26) and Rocky Nyamedi (29), currently on remand, are scheduled to appear in court on March 4, 2024, for sentencing.
The prosecution revealed that the initial three apprehended suspects identified Rocky Nyamedi, an employee of the company, as the mastermind behind the robbery.
Subsequently, the police traced and arrested Nyamedi in Esereso, while Martin Asante was apprehended in Bibiani.
The case involving a hunter mistaking his fellow hunter for prey at Timtimhwe, a community along the Tarkwa-Bogoso Highway in the Western Region, has reached its conclusion.
In a final ruling, the Tarkwa Circuit Court, presided over by Mrs. Hathia Ama Manu, decreed that Isaac Donkor, the 55-year-old hunter, would serve a three-year jail term and pay an amount of GH¢600 for fatally shooting and killing Aziz Abukbil, 37, also a hunter.
Mr Donkor faced charges of murder, negligently causing harm, and possessing a firearm without authority. He pleaded guilty to all counts after voluntarily reporting himself to the police following the tragic shooting incident.
According to Donkor’s account, he had been hunting around 3 p.m. when he spotted what appeared to be a rat (Odompo). Believing it to be his target, he fired his weapon, only to realize afterward that he had shot a human being. Overcome with shock and fear, he fled the scene before eventually surrendering himself to the authorities.
Superintendent Juliana Essel-Dadzie, who led the prosecution, revealed that Osman Awuni, a farmer and the brother of the deceased, Abukbil, had reported his brother missing after he failed to return from his hunting expedition.
Subsequently, a search party discovered Abukbil’s lifeless body in the bush at Timtimhwe, bearing gunshot wounds to his face and arms.
Following the discovery, Donkor confessed to the police that he had accidentally killed Abukbil with his unregistered CBC single-barrel shotgun during a hunting excursion.
The police promptly launched an investigation, and Donkor was subsequently charged and brought to trial.
Ghana Prisons Service has broken its silence regarding the reported escape of a Chinese national who was serving a one-year jail term for theft at the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison.
The incident took place during the individual’s medical assessment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.
Superintendent Abdul Latif Adamu, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, confirmed the escape and revealed that the inmate, Wang Xiao, was undergoing medical examination at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital at the time of the incident.
During an interview on Citi FM on February 12, 2024, he elaborated that despite being escorted by prison officers, Xiao managed to escape.
“It is indeed true that an incident like that has come to the attention of the service, and we can confirm that, yes, an escape has happened at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where an inmate, a Chinese to be specific who was sent there for assessment for medical care, unfortunately, escaped.
“As it stands now, the issue is seriously under investigation, and we have mounted a strategy to search for and, if possible, recapture him. he was a convict serving a one-year jail term. the inmate in question was on transfer to Korle-Bu Hospital; it was a dental problem,” he said.
Superintendent Abdul Latif Adamu continued, “Officers were deployed to supervise him to ensure that he was escorted to the hospital and then back to the facility but unfortunately, this happened.
“That is why investigations are very necessaryto establish how it happened and the factors that actually caused it. We have gotten a lot of leads that have proven to be successful in what we are doing,” he added.
In a separate report by the state-owned graphiconline.com, DSP Irene Pokuah Wiredu, Head of Media Relations for the service, disclosed that a wanted person notice has been issued, urging the public to assist in re-arresting Wang Xiao.
A 27-year-old driver was given a 15-year prison term for having sex with a 14-year-old girl in a church at Sowutuom.
Enoch Mensah entered a guilty plea to the charge of defilement during his appearance before the Gender Based Violence Court at the Police Headquarters.
Mensah’s own plea resulted in his conviction and sentencing by the court.
Mensah is accused of defiling the victim four times in the complainant’s home in addition to the church grounds.
Innocently following Mensah when he sought her help, the victim defiled the church, as Detective Chief Inspector Opoku Aniagyei begged the court to impose a deterrent sentence.
In the prosecution’s case, the complainant—a trader who lives in Apotro, close to Sowutuom in Accra—is the mother of the victim, a 14-year-old.
Mensah, a driver, lived in the same area, according to the prosecutor.
The victim assisted the accused in cleaning the church at the Church name withheld in Nsumfa, close to Sowutum, in June 2023.
According to the report, Mensah locked the church, led the victim to an office, and engaged in “unprotected sexual intercourse” with her on a table while admonishing her not to tell anyone.
Mensah proceeded to have four sex encounters with the victim at the complainant’s home, according to the prosecutor.
A 62-year-old illegal miner is facing legal consequences for a heinous crime, as he poured a liquid suspected to be acid on his former girlfriend, Victoria Salamatu Safia, aged 35, in Prestea, Western Region.
The perpetrator, John Tandoh, also known as Kojo Egyaguma, has been sentenced to 20 years of hard labor by the Tarkwa Circuit Court after pleading guilty to the charge of causing harm during his first appearance before Judge Hathia Ama Manu.
According to reports by GNA, Tandoh has a history of similar offenses. In 2012, he was sentenced to 16 years but was discharged on amnesty in June 2020 after serving eight years. Tandoh and the victim worked together as partners in an illegal mining site in Prestea for about a year. They had been living together after Tandoh proposed love to Victoria, and she accepted.
However, their relationship took a dark turn, with Tandoh’s behavior becoming increasingly hostile. Victoria, sensing the deteriorating situation, decided to end the relationship. On October 20, 2023, a dispute between them escalated, leading to a horrifying act of violence.
After a brief departure, Tandoh returned to the mining site with a concealed bowl, leading Victoria to believe it contained food. Instead, he launched an attack, pouring a liquid suspected to be acid on her head, face, and other parts of her body. The victim suffered severe burns and was rushed to the Prestea Government hospital, where she is currently undergoing treatment.
A witness at the scene attempted to apprehend Tandoh, but the assailant brandished a knife, threatening violence, and managed to escape. Later that day, Tandoh was arrested from his hideout and handed over to the police in Prestea.
The court, acknowledging the severity of the crime, sentenced Tandoh to 20 years of hard labor. This case serves as a stark reminder of the grim consequences of domestic violence and the importance of legal accountability in addressing such heinous acts.
Parere Kunyenzura spent 187 days in a prison cell last year in Harare’s central business district for organizing what the police deemed an illegal gathering.
Throughout his imprisonment, he endured the harsh conditions of the prison without trial. While fellow inmates came and went, he remained, haunted by the persistent and overpowering stench of human waste and urine.
The conditions were particularly unbearable during the night when more than 100 inmates, including Kunyenzura, were locked up from 3 pm to 6 am.
They huddled together on the floor, sharing lice-infested blankets left behind by previous inmates. It was a situation that none of them desired, but they had to endure the challenging circumstances of their confinement.
During his time in jail, Kunyenzura frequently saw many inmates resort to defecating in plastic buckets. “The toilets don’t have a flushing system or don’t have the sitting bowls. Of the few that do, the flushing system doesn’t work,” he told Al Jazeera.
The Zimbabwe Transformative Party (ZTP) leader and cleric Kunyezura would silently pray that no one would experience episodes of diarrhea. However, one night some poorly prepared spinach started a messy incident, and the inmates had to put up with the foul odor of feces for up to 15 hours before everything was cleansed.
“It was a crisis,” he told Al Jazeera. The buckets were not enough.”
Misheck Nyembe, a 72-year-old pensioner who spent 13 days behind bars in January for attending a political meeting the police had not given a permit for, told Al Jazeera that the prison was “infested with lice” and his body was itchy for weeks after his release. Nyembe, who ate only food provided by his family during his detention, said the prison meals were only “fit for pigs”.
“Everything about prison [in Zimbabwe] is horrible,” said Wilbert Mandinde, programmes coordinator at Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, which advocates for prisoners’ rights, including the right to vote and have access to water. “The conditions are terrible in the sense that they are congested.”
‘A need to decongest’
The Southern African nation has depended extensively on prisons built during the colonial era since gaining independence from Britain in 1980. These facilities have long been overworked and are currently breaking under the weight of Zimbabwe’s escalating economic problems.
The Zimbabwean judicial ministry reports that there are 46 prisons in the country. Two are reserved solely for female inmates, 17 are reserved for men, and the remaining rooms are coed.
As of March 2021, the jails were housing 23,000 convicts despite having a 17,000-capacity. According to the justice ministry, Harare’s Remand Prison, which had a capacity of 800 people when it was completed in 1910, today houses roughly 2,220 inmates.
Even a 2018 pardon of almost 3,000 prisoners by the government did not help significantly.
In 2022, the World Prison Brief, published by the University of London’s Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, ranked Zimbabwe’s prisons as the 75th most overcrowded globally on a list of 203 countries. The database lists its occupancy rate at 130 percent.
“Post-independence, we have done very little in terms of building new prisons. Additionally, the country’s population has increased tremendously since independence,” Mandinde told Al Jazeera.
From independence to the last population count in 2022, Zimbabwe’s population had swelled from 7 million to 15 million people. Madinde added that population growth in the midst of an economic downturn has spurred an increase in criminal activity.
“The economy is bad and criminal activity has risen, and this has caused the overcrowding of facilities. … There are instances where we have been at more than 100% holding capacity,” he said. “The number of people in prison remains very high, and there is a need to decongest the prison.”
United Nations resolutions on basic treatment of prisoners stipulate that they be treated “fairly and with dignity”, regardless of the nature of their crimes. They have set out the basic minimum standards for their treatment, including food, clothing, medical care and access to legal assistance.
But in Zimbabwe, these standards have become nonexistent as the country’s economic woes have worsened, analysts said.
“Ever since the country started experiencing an economic meltdown almost two decades ago, prisons have been failing to perform their mandate of providing a decent diet among other things,” said Edison Chihota, chief executive of Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO).
Rising inflation means allocated funds are no longer enough to feed prisoners or fund organisations like ZACRO, he said. Consequently, prison authorities now rely on private sector donations for essential needs.
A prison warden who spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity said he was struggling to survive on a salary with constantly depreciating value.
It remains unclear what the budget allocation to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) is because it is disbursed at the discretion of the justice ministry.
Mandinde told Al Jazeera that there was also no long-term plan to tackle the overcrowding of prisons.
“We had this serious problem when COVID-19 hit, which required people to be isolated and reduced inmates,” he said. Other than presidential amnesties, there has been no plan to decongest the prison. We have seen that with amnesty, those pardoned inmates end up back in prison in no time.”
Neither ZPCS spokesperson Meya Khanyezi nor Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the allegations or general state of the prisons.
A tool of repression
Former inmates of the Harare Remand facility told Al Jazeera that they either witnessed or suffered violence at the hands of prison guards.
“Not a day went by without someone getting beaten up for no apparent reason. It was the order of the day,” Kunyenzura said.
Others complained of filmed strip searches, and some inmates said they were forced to attend church services, regardless of their religious rights and beliefs, and beaten for not singing or participating enough.
Another increasing burden on the prison system is the rise in detentions of activists and opposition figures without trial for long periods of time. In the past year, close to 100 opposition supporters have been arrested and detained for varying periods.
That, Kunyenzura says, is evidence that the justice system is now a tool to silence critics.
“Our judiciary system is by and large captured by [the ruling party] Zanu-PF. … It seemed to us during our persecution that the magistrates were simply told, ‘Do XYZ to suspect so and so,’ and they didn’t have control over the matter,” Kunyenzura said. “At the back of their minds, we were political offenders.”
Even a 2018 pardon of almost 3,000 prisoners by the government did not help significantly.
In 2022, the World Prison Brief, published by the University of London’s Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, ranked Zimbabwe’s prisons as the 75th most overcrowded globally on a list of 203 countries. The database lists its occupancy rate at 130 percent.
“Post-independence, we have done very little in terms of building new prisons. Additionally, the country’s population has increased tremendously since independence,” Mandinde told Al Jazeera.
From independence to the last population count in 2022, Zimbabwe’s population had swelled from 7 million to 15 million people. Madinde added that population growth in the midst of an economic downturn has spurred an increase in criminal activity.
“The economy is bad and criminal activity has risen, and this has caused the overcrowding of facilities. … There are instances where we have been at more than 100% holding capacity,” he said. “The number of people in prison remains very high, and there is a need to decongest the prison.”
United Nations resolutions on basic treatment of prisoners stipulate that they be treated “fairly and with dignity”, regardless of the nature of their crimes. They have set out the basic minimum standards for their treatment, including food, clothing, medical care and access to legal assistance.
But in Zimbabwe, these standards have become nonexistent as the country’s economic woes have worsened, analysts said.
“Ever since the country started experiencing an economic meltdown almost two decades ago, prisons have been failing to perform their mandate of providing a decent diet among other things,” said Edison Chihota, chief executive of Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO).
Rising inflation means allocated funds are no longer enough to feed prisoners or fund organisations like ZACRO, he said. Consequently, prison authorities now rely on private sector donations for essential needs.
A prison warden who spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity said he was struggling to survive on a salary with constantly depreciating value.
It remains unclear what the budget allocation to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) is because it is disbursed at the discretion of the justice ministry.
Mandinde told Al Jazeera that there was also no long-term plan to tackle the overcrowding of prisons.
“We had this serious problem when COVID-19 hit, which required people to be isolated and reduced inmates,” he said. Other than presidential amnesties, there has been no plan to decongest the prison. We have seen that with amnesty, those pardoned inmates end up back in prison in no time.”
Neither ZPCS spokesperson Meya Khanyezi nor Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the allegations or general state of the prisons.
A tool of repression
Former inmates of the Harare Remand facility told Al Jazeera that they either witnessed or suffered violence at the hands of prison guards.
“Not a day went by without someone getting beaten up for no apparent reason. It was the order of the day,” Kunyenzura said.
Others complained of filmed strip searches, and some inmates said they were forced to attend church services, regardless of their religious rights and beliefs, and beaten for not singing or participating enough.
Another increasing burden on the prison system is the rise in detentions of activists and opposition figures without trial for long periods of time. In the past year, close to 100 opposition supporters have been arrested and detained for varying periods.
That, Kunyenzura says, is evidence that the justice system is now a tool to silence critics.
“Our judiciary system is by and large captured by [the ruling party] Zanu-PF. … It seemed to us during our persecution that the magistrates were simply told, ‘Do XYZ to suspect so and so,’ and they didn’t have control over the matter,” Kunyenzura said. “At the back of their minds, we were political offenders.”
A 32-year-old coconut seller has been sentenced to a 10 year jail term by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for sleeping with a minor.
Emmanuel Ofori, is said to have defiled a 13-year-old girl.
The convict pleaded guilty simpliciter but the court convicted him on his plea as the survivor was a female under the age of 16 years.
The court was presided over by Her Ladyship Veronique Praba Tetteh, who sat as a relieving Judge at the circuit court one.
Prosecuting, Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako told the court that the complainant, Madam Debora Kumi, is a farmer and grandmother to the survivor.
He said the survivor and Ofori all lived at Twifo Praso in Twifo Atti-Morkwa district in the Central Region.
Chief Inspector said on Monday, July 17, at about 07:00 hours, Madam Deborah sent the survivor to sell com dough at Twifo Praso Township.
In the process, the survivor met the accused, and under the pretext of buying some of the corn dough, the accused took the survivor to his house.
Ofori lured the survivor into his room, undressed himself, undressed the survivor and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her on the floor.
After the act, Ofori gave her GHC 5.00 to buy food. Survivor after reaching home, revealed the ordeal she had gone through at the hands of Ofori to Deborah.
A case was reported at Twifo Praso Dovvsu by Deborah, leading to the arrest of the Ofori.
Police Medical Report Form was issued to the Ofori to send the survivor to any Government Hospital for Medical examination, treatment and endorsement. The accused was cautioned.
On Tuesday, July 18, Deborah returned the Medical Form from Twifo Praso District Hospital duly endorsed, indicating that the hymen of the survivor was absent.
Ofori was charged with the offence as stated on the charge sheet and arraigned for court
The Court presided over by Her Ladyship Veronique Praba Tetteh convicted Ato Whyte on his own plea of guilty simplisiter to the offence levied against him.
The court, however, went on full trial and found the convict guilty of the offence.
Prosecuting, Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako told the court that the complainant Margaret Akula a mother to survivor is a seamstress and lives at Ebubonkor Amissano, a suburb of Cape Coast Metropolis.
The Prosecutor said both survivor and the convict lived in the same vicinity with the complainant.
He said Ato Whyte knows the parents of the survivor and due to this he used to engage the survivor on some household chores for him.
During the month of February, Ato Whyte took undue advantage of the survivor in one of the days, sent her to his room and managed to have sexual intercourse with her and warned her never to inform anybody.
After the first act, Ato Whyte had series of unprotected sexual intercourse with the survivor
About two weeks ago, one Jackline, a teacher in the survivor’s school detected a sign of pregnancy in the survivor and informed the complainant.
The complainant questioned the survivor to that effect and she revealed her ordeal to the complainant as stated above.
Madam Magaret reported the case to DOVVSU-Cape Coast against Ato Whyte. Where Police Medical Report Form was issued to the complainant to send the survivor to any Government Hospital for counseling, examination, treatment and report which she did.
It also came to light that the survivor is currently carrying 5 months old pregnancy as a result of the sexual assault.
The accused was arrested, cautioned and after investigations, charged with the offence before this honourable court.
A scrap dealer will spend the next ten years in jail as he has been sentenced by an Accra Circuit Court for stealing car gearbox.
The 25-year-old is said to have stolen a Renault gear box and its housing belonging to a driver.
Mohammed Mansur also stole engine heads of Toyota Corolla S, and Renault air conditioner motor, all totaling GHS8,500.00.
Charged with unlawful entry and stealing, Mansur pleaded guilty.
The Court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah, convicted Mansur on his plea and sentenced him to five years imprisonment for unlawful entry and 10 years imprisonment for stealing.
“Sentence will run concurrently,” the Court said.
The facts, as presented by Police Chief Inspector Daniel Danku, prosecuting was that the complainant is a driver and resides at Nungua Addogonno, while the convict is a resident of Nungua Zongo.
The prosecution said on July 25, 2023 at about 1330 hours, the convict scaled the wall into the complainant’s gated house and stole Toyota Corolla S engine head valued GHS 2, 500.00, Renault air conditioner motor valued GHS 3,000.00 and Renault gear box and its housing also valued GHS 3,000.00.
It said all the items the convict stole were totaled GH₵8,500.00 and was kept in a room within the compound.
The prosecution said the convict threw the items over a wall into the adjoining gated compound of the complainant’s neighbors who were witnesses in the case.
It said while parking his booty into a sack, luck eluded him and he was arrested by the witnesses.
The prosecution said the neighbors identified the stolen items as the property of the complainant and informed him about the theft. It said the convict together with the stolen items were sent to the Police station, where a complaint was lodged.
The Bolgatanga High Court I has sentenced a 25-year-old school dropout to 10 years in prison for manslaughter.
As per the Ghanaian Times newspaper report on July 24, 2023, the case of the now convicted suspect Solomon Zina had been in progress for approximately five years.
Throughout the trial, he was on remand at the Navrongo prisons.
The conviction came following the decision of a seven-member jury, who found Zina guilty of manslaughter in the court presided over by Justice Charles Adjei Wilson.
He had originally been charged with murder, as per section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
Throughout the lengthy trial, the presiding judge, who is also the Supervising High Court Judge in Bolgatanga, carefully presented the facts, evidence, and legal aspects of both murder and manslaughter.
He instructed the jury to base their verdict solely on the evidence and not to let any biases or prejudices influence their decision.
“Don’t treat the accused with prejudice. Do not look at his tribe, religion, work, whatsoever. If you believe the accused killed him (the deceased) intentionally, return a verdict of murder.
“Also, upon deliberations, if you believe the accused did not commit the act intentionally, return a verdict of manslaughter.
“However, if there are doubts, acquit and discharge the accused. And remember that your verdict must be unanimous,” Justice Wilson told the seven-person jury.
After a 10-minute deliberation, the jury unanimously returned a verdict of manslaughter, leading to Zina’s conviction and subsequent incarceration.
After putting the facts and matter of law before the jurors, Justice Wilson asked them to retire to the chambers and peruse the facts, before returning their verdict on the offence.
After 10-minute deliberation at the chambers, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of manslaughter against the accused, and he was subsequently convicted and incarcerated accordingly.
Defence counsel of the convict, Mohammed Lawal of Legal Aid, argued that his client was only 20 years old when the offence occurred and should be sentenced under the Juvenile Justice Act, which imposes a maximum of 3-year jail term for young offenders.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Wilson rejected this argument, stating that Zina’s demeanor in court indicated that he was an adult at the time of the crime, and the Juvenile Justice Act wouldn’t be applicable in this case.
“Per the demeanour, and I mean the physical traits exhibited by the accused in the witness box, it shows that he (accused) is an adult and was more than the 20 years he chose to give to the police in his caution statement.”
In a ruling delivered by the Accra High Court, a shop attendant has been handed a three-year prison sentence with hard labor after being found guilty of embezzling cosmetic products valued at GHC174,640 from the store where he was employed.
According to the Ghanaian Times Newspaper of July 19, 2023, the suspect, identified as Samuel Botchway, pleaded guilty before the court presided over by Madam Kizita Naa Koowa Quarshie.
He admitted to stealing the boxes of cosmetics worth GHC158,640 and four boxes of the same product worth GHC16,000.
The prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Eric Pobee, in presenting the fact brief named Vida Arhin-Duah as the complainant.
She is a trader and a resident of Ablekuma Joma, in Accra, whilst Botchway, the convict, resided at Bortianor, also in Accra.
Chief Insp. Pobee told the court that Botchway worked with the com¬plainant as a shop assistant and warehouse keeper. The complainant is said to have two warehouses, one at Ablekuma Joma and the other at the Makola Mall building.
The prosecutor told the court that the complainant discovered cosmetic product shortages in both the shop and the warehouse.
The prosecution said the accused was seen counting money in a shop within Okaishie Market belonging to a witness, whose name is given as Latifa Rashid.
On realising that the complainant rushed to the convict to find out what he was doing at the shop at Okaishie.
The witness, Latifa told the complainant that Botchway had been her regular customer, who supplied her with cosmetic products.
According to Chief Insp Pobee, Latifa said the convict had supplied her (witness) with four boxes of gel polish and had come to collect the payment worth GH¢12,800.
The prosecution said Latifa also indicated that between December 2022 and April 2023, the convict had supplied her with a number of cosmetic products, which she paid for.
Chief Insp Pobee said when Botchway was arrested, he admitted the offence in his investigation cautioned statement.
The presiding judge sentenced the accused to six months in prison for stealing cosmetic products worth GHC158,640 and six months in prison for stealing cosmetic products worth GHC16,000. Both sentences must run at the same time.
Two persons have been remanded over drug trafficking.
The Jasikan Circuit Court remanded into Police custody the two, Raphael Agbele, the 42-year-old driver and Daniel Sakyi, a 26-year-old student for trafficking 410 parcels of narcotic drugs suspected to be Indian hemp.
They both pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The case was adjourned to July 25, 2023, for the suspects to reappear.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Seth Vincent Kpod, Prosecuting, told the Court presided over by Mr Alfred Kwabena Asiedu that the complainant was an Assemblyman.
He said on May 24, 2023, Agbele was in charge of a Benz bus container with registration number GT8496-N travelling from Hohoe to Dormabin.
ASP Kpodo said Sakyi who was also on the same vehicle, was the driver’s mate.
He said upon reaching the Asukawkaw Bridge, the vehicle veered off the road and got involved in an accident.
ASP Kpodo said the complainant, hearing of the accident, rushed to the scene and realised that there were sacks inside a secret compartment in the Benz bus which had broken down because of the accident.
He said several of the said sacks were also seen scattered on the road, which the Assemblyman quickly packed to prevent people from stealing them.
ASP Kpodo said the Assemblyman subsequently informed the Police about the incident.
He said the Police rushed to the scene and found 12 sacks and ten parcels of the wrapped Indian hemp that were retrieved from the accident vehicle.
ASP Kpodo said Police proceeded to the Asukawkaw Clinic and arrested the suspects who had been treated and discharged because of the accident.
He said the suspects in their investigation caution statements to police denied any wrongdoing.
ASP Kpodo said the suspects mentioned one Selasie Zigah of Hohoe as the owner of the vehicle who sent them to load charcoal at Dormabin and were not aware of the content of the vehicle.
He said efforts were being made to get the said owner of the vehicle arrested for investigations, but he has since gone into hiding.
An Accra Circuit Court has granted GHS 200,000 bail with two sureties to a businessman accused of the fraudulent sale of Mercedes Benz C300.
The accused person is said to have sold an unregistered 2015 model Mercedes Benz C300 saloon car to the complainant, Mr Seidu Issaka, for GHS180,000.00.
The court presided over by Mrs Susana Eduful adjourned the case to August.9, 2023.
Police Chief Inspector Samuel Ahiabor, prosecuting told the court that Mr Issaka was a trader and a resident of Achimota, a suburb of Accra.
It said the accused on the other hand was a businessman and a resident of Taifa.
The prosecution said sometime in 2021, the complainant desired to buy a Mercedes Benz saloon car for his private use and was introduced to the accused person by a friend, since he was a dealer in cars.
On October 5, 2021, the accused then sold an unregistered 2015 model Mercedes Benz C300 saloon car to the complainant for GH₵180,000.00.
It said about a week later, the car developed a fault, and the accused was informed but he assured the complainant that he had a mechanic, who could repair car.
The prosecution said the accused then went for the car with the promise of repairing it and returning it in time but failed to do so.
The accused resold the said car to another person, appropriated the proceeds and went into hiding.
It said that he was arrested, and he admitted the offence.
The prosecution said investigations revealed that for the accused to execute his plans to succeed in his endeavour to steal, he managed to secure a certified copy of the car documents from the Customs Office, which documents he knew the original was with the complainant.
It said the document facilitated his reselling of the car to another buyer and after investigations, the accused was charged with the offence and brought before the court.
A 28-year-old commercial motorist, Baba Suleman, also known as Tornado, has been convicted and sentenced to eight years of hard labor for charges of unlawful entry and theft.
Suleman pleaded guilty and was convicted on his own plea by the Jasikan Circuit Court presided over by Mr Alfred Kwabena Asiedu.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Seth Vincent Kpodo, Prosecutor, told the Court that the complainant was a manager of a guest house and fuel filling station and the convict, a commercial Okada rider.
He said there had been a series of complaints of theft of mobile phones, television sets and laptops within Worawora and its environs.
ASP Kpodo said all efforts made by the people living in the vicinity and the Police to arrest the perpetrators had proved futile.
He noted that on July 4, this year, at about 2100 hours, the convict was in charge of his Sanya motorbike with registration number M- 1241- 17 with his friend one Awaki Ransford, a student of Worawora Senior High School as his pillion rider.
ASP Kpodo said Awaki, also a witness in the case, together with the convict went to the complainant’s fuel station to buy fuel for their motorbike.
He said after they bought the fuel, it started raining and the convict told the witness to climb the staircase to the guest house in order not to get wet and the witness obliged.
ASP Kpodo said after few moments, Awaki saw the convict with an electric iron and 32-inch Nasco smart television and its remote valued GH¢1,350.
He said the convict disclosed to the witness he took the items from one of the hotel rooms after enquiring.
ASP Kpodo said the witness who was scared, then, ordered the convict to return the items to where he took them as that was not their motive of coming to the filling station.
He said the convict instructed the witness to take his motor key and ride the motor to the entrance of the filling station in order to run away with the items.
ASP Kpodo said the witness got scared but took the key from convict and rode the motorbike away leaving the convict behind.
He said all this while the fuel attendant and the manager were inside their office because of the rain.
ASP Kpodo said the convict kept waiting for his friend but all in vain.
He said the convict together with the TV set and pressing iron proceeded to the Apesokubi township to search for the witness.
ASP Kpodo said the convict on his way, met one Emmanuel Ansah also a witness and upon interrogation, convict could not give any tangible explanation to where he got the items from.
He said the convict was arrested together with the TV set covered in a pink lady’s dress and the pressing iron to the Apesokubi Police station and an official complaint lodged.
ASP Kpodo said on July 5, witness Ansah had an information that the said items belong to one Gyamfi Prosper, the C.E.O of the Oti Guest House and Desert filling station at Apesokubi, where the complainant was the manager.
He said on the same day, witness Awaki was arrested together with the said Sanya motorbike and in his witness statement to Police, disclosed that he only escorted the convict to purchase fuel but not to steal the said items.
ASP Kpodo said the convict in his investigation cautioned statement admitted the offences and stated that he stole the items from one of the hotel rooms.
He said the items were displayed and the complainant again identified the same as hers.
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.
An Evangelist and Prophetess have been handed an 11-year prison sentence for their involvement in the theft of GHC265,000 from the bank account of a 72-year-old retired lecturer.
The sentencing has sent shockwaves through the community, highlighting the betrayal of trust and the consequences of financial exploitation against vulnerable individuals.
As reported by DailyGuide on July 6, 2023, two individuals identified as Samuel Kwesi Tsogbe, a 33-year-old evangelist, and Esther Christ, a 63-year-old prophetess, both self-ordained pastors of Cornerstone Ministry International, have been accused of embezzling funds from the bank account of a sick and bedridden 72-year-old lecturer.
The pair allegedly siphoned a substantial amount of money from the lecturer’s account, causing widespread outrage and raising concerns about financial exploitation.
After stealing the money, Tsogbe and Christ opened an account with another bank and channeled the stolen funds into the said account.
The two were charged with stealing.
The court presided over by Mrs. Sedinam Awo Balokah, convicted the accused persons on their own pleas as they both pleaded guilty to the offence.
According to the prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Maxwell Lanyo, who presented the fact brief to the court, indicated that, the persons travelled from Kpando to Accra to offer prayers for the bedridden lecturer.
It was during their stay at the lecturer’s house that they committed the crime.
After which they sent away the lecturer’s house help, whom they claimed was the cause of the victim’s predicament.
The prosecutor named Margaret Dzandu, a teacher and the victim’s niece who lives in Kpando in the Volta Region, as the complainant, while the victim is a retiree who lives in Danfa in the Greater Accra Region.
According to the persecuting officer, the accused persuaded the complainant in 2022 that they had a revelation about her uncle’s situation and convinced her to send them to his residence to pray for the victim.
The prosecution said the accused persons occupied the home of the victim for about five months.
While there, they sacked the housekeeper and engaged a new house help from Kpando.
On May 4, 2022, Evangelist Tsogbe and Prophetess Esther took the victim to NIB bank, to withdraw GH200,000 from his account. They also stole the victim’s ATM card and cheque book from the National Investment Bank (NIB) after he did the withdrawal.
The prosecution stated that on September 22, 2022, they began transferring funds from the victim’s NIB account to Tsogbe’s account until June 2, 2023.
Chief Inspector Maxwell Lanyo added that the complainant visited the victim who needed money in June 2023. During a search of the house, the victim’s ATM card and cheque book were not found.
It said the complainant’s preliminary investigations showed that the accused persons had stolen her uncle’s ATM card and cheque book.
It added that the complainant reported the matter to the police at Kpando and an extract was given to her to send to the police at Ayi Mensah.
When the accused were arrested by police, they admitted to stealing the victims’ ATM card and cheque book, which were recovered.
According to police investigations, the accused purchased a tipper truck, a Hyundai Mighty 2 vehicle, and rented a shop in the Oti Region.
The Evangelist Samuel Kwesi Tsogbe pleaded with the court to forgive him as he did not know his action would turn out this way.
“I apologise for this; have learnt my lesson,” he said.
Esther Christ, the Prophetess, also told the court that she was a foreigner who came to Ghana through another prophet. “I sincerely apologize,” Esther told the court.
The judge, Sedinam Awo Balokah, described the accused persons conduct as “unpalatable”.
The report added that the court was not impressed at all with the way people were using spirituality to exploit the vulnerable, hence handing down a deterrent sentence.
It ordered the seizure of items purchased and owned by the accused persons.
The court also froze the account of Tsogbe and restrained him or other persons from withdrawing money from the said account.
The two were served with a total jail term of 11 years. Samuel Kwesi Tsogbe, the evangelist was sentenced to six years imprisonment, while Esther Christ was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, has been discovered dead in his jail cell, federal sources confirmed to the international media.
Kaczynski, 81, killed three people and injured 23 more during a mass mail-bombing spree between 1978 and 1995. He later pleaded guilty to his crimes.
He was sentenced to life without parole in 1996 after evading capture for almost 20 years.
The Harvard-trained mathematician was eventually caught in a Montana cabin.
He was a man who fascinated America for decades, and he became the focus of numerous TV documentaries.
Kaczynski spent the past three decades held at prisons across the US – most recently at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina.
Prison guards at the facility discovered Kaczynski’s body on Saturday morning at around 00:25 local time (04:25 GMT), a spokesperson for the US Bureau of Prisons told the BBC.
His cause of death was not immediately clear.
“Responding staff immediately initiated life-saving measures,” the spokesperson said. Kaczynski was then “transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital personnel”.
Before suffering from declining health which prompted his transfer to the facility in December 2021, he had been held at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998.
Kaczynski’s violent campaign – which shook the US – left a number of his victims permanently maimed and changed the way Americans posted letters.
His crimes were uncovered after he forced the Washington Post and the New York Times to publish his unhinged and angry manifesto, called Industrial Society and Its Future, in September 1995.
They agreed to print the manifesto on the recommendation of the FBI and the US attorney general after Kaczynski said he would end his campaign if a national paper published his treatise.
The 35,000-word anonymised document railed against modern life and claimed that technology was leading to Americans suffering from a sense of alienation and powerlessness.
But after reading the papers, Kaczynski’s brother and sister-in-law recognised the tone and alerted the FBI, who had been searching for him for years in the nation’s longest manhunt.
In April 1996 authorities finally caught up with him in a 10-by-14-foot (3-by-4-metre) plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana.
The hut was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosives and two completed bombs.
While Kaczynski’s manifesto struck many as being overtly political in tone, he never sought to embody the revolutionary mantle some attributed to him.
In his own journals he wrote that he didn’t claim to be “altruist or to be acting for the ‘good’ (whatever that is) of the human race”, instead insisting that he acted “merely from a desire for revenge”.
His crimes seemed to begin shortly after he was fired from the family business by his brother for posting abusive limericks to a female colleague who had dumped him after two dates.
From there he retreated to the Montana wildness and to the cabin he had built by hand, without heating, plumbing or electricity.
His first attacks targeted Northwestern University in Illinois. The two bombings occurred almost a year apart on 25 May 1978 and 9 May 1979, injuring two people.
Then, in November 1979, an altitude-triggered bomb he had mailed went off aboard an American Airlines flight. Twelve people suffered from smoke inhalation.
The early attacks earned him the moniker Unabomber from the FBI, as his targets seemed to be universities and airlines.
Image caption,On 5 April 1996, FBI agents finally tracked Kaczynski to a remote cabin in Montana
Over the following years he attacked a further 13 times, killing three people – computer rental store owner Hugh Scrutton, advertising executive Thomas Mosser and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray.
At Kaczynski’s trial, Mr Mosser’s wife said her husband had been killed on the day he was supposed to be picking up a Christmas tree with his family and recalled the moments after the attack.
“He was moaning very softly,” she said of her husband. “The fingers on his right hand were dangling. I held his left hand. I told him help was coming. I told him I loved him.”
Since his capture there has been endless speculation about Kaczynski’s motivations.
A test as a boy revealed he possessed an IQ of 167, and he had skipped two grades to attend Harvard University aged just 16.
FBI agents described him as “a twisted genius who aspires to be the perfect, anonymous killer” and he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychiatrist who interviewed him in prison.
In a 47-page report Sally Johnson wrote that the “central themes” of his manifesto “involve his belief that he is being maligned and harassed by family members and modern society”.
But Kaczynski himself always insisted that he knew exactly what he was doing, and he tried to take his own life in prison after his legal team attempted to introduce an insanity plea.
In an interview with Time magazine in 1999 he said he didn’t suffer from “delusions and and so on and so forth”.
“I’m confident that I’m sane, personally,” he said.
After serving a four-year prison sentence for stabbing a friend, Sam Safo, a popular Ghanaian musician and socialite known as Showboy, is set to be deported from US to Ghana.
Showboy who announced his release from prison today, June, 7, on Instagram yesterday said he wanted to be in Ghana.
“Follow my new snap chat-Ahantan. I wish I was in Ghana lol. Anyways, I’m getting released tomorrow 06/07,2023 … my last night in prison!(sic)”.
Showboy was sentenced to serve six years in prison in March 2019 for stabbing Junior US, a US based Ghanaian musician during a tussle.
Junior US survived the stabbing but was later killed in a robbery attack in 2021.
At the time of Junior’s death, many people accused Showboy’s “men” for carrying out the crime but that was disputed when the real culprits were later apprehended by the US Police.
Showboy had a good relationship with Criss Waddle
Even though Showboy was in detention, he was quite active on social media giving details of his life and events leading to his incarceration.
In one of his posts last year, he accused Criss Waddle, founder of AMG Record label, which he is said to be co-founder for setting him up.
“5yrs ago Criss Waddle sent junior us to my house (apartment) … they set me up..my life hasnt been the same since then. July 3,2016 . I never forget this day. U can read the statement and see the lies they told police, came to court and denied everything and said they scared of me,”
“Told court am a Gunsta .. prosecutor told me I got a Huge Ego and said I call the shot .. I was profiled .. if not Criss Waddle sending Junior to me to come pay me money he Criss Waddle owed ..all this never was going to happen .. Junior us was never my friend. That was Criss Waddle friend that hated on me out of jealousy .. I was set up by Criss Waddle and his friends. .thats the facts … still ain’t got no visit from Criss Waddle till today. .. haven’t seen him in 5yrs(sic),” he wrote at the time.
Perhaps, Showboy gave a hint of his deportation in April this year in a Facebook post.
This is what he said, “Dem want deport me ..a make sad rough. .. a taya for life … if a come Ghana too Boyz want beat me especially criss waddle and shatta wale in friends lol …. make a sign for deportation or sit for another 1yr or 2 for immigration detention to fight for ma stay and still be on 9yrs probation. .. or to just sign for the deportation n come face death or happineass in Ghana …… lol am stressed, I can’t think far ..
Sometimes I think God don’t like me”.
till today. .. haven’t seen him in 5yrs “
“Being doing time for almost 2 and half years now … still depressed ..still suffering mentally … I am not innocent ,I was attacked first and I defended myself by stabbing. .I dont have control off ma adrenaline ..I did whatever to survive at the moment. .THEY SET ME UP ..TOOK MY FREEDOM FROM ME …. U ASK WHY AM MENTALLY UNSTABLE..THIS IS .. I DONT HAVE NO FRIEND ,NOBODY TO TRUST … JUST FAKE LOVE ALL AROUND ME (sic)”.
A 63-year old farmer will spend the next ten years in jail for defiling a seven (7) year old girl.
This is after a Cape Coast Circuit Court sentenced the man, Joseph Begyina to ten years imprisonment with hard labour for defiling the girl.
Esther Duodu, a class three pupil of Nyamebekyere D/C Basic School resides with her father, Yaw Duodo and family at Assin Bereku Nyamebekyere.
Prosecuting Chief Inspector Gilbert Adongo narrated to the court presided over by Her Ladyship Dorinda Smith-Arthur that the father of Esther is a cocoa farmer who sells local gin which Joseph Begyina (the convict) walks for a distance of about 500 meters to buy daily.
According to him, on Saturday, April 29, at about 03:00 hours Joseph Begyina went to buy local gin from Duodu and after he was served, Duodu asked Esther to take care of the drinks whilst he went to work on his farm.
After working for about 5 minutes, Duodu decided to come to the compound to pick something but did not see her daughter where he sells the drinks.
He then started calling her to ask why she left the drinks outside. Upon hearing her father’s voice, Esther came out of the room.
Prosecution added that during the questioning, her father saw Begyina also coming out of Esther’s room whiles zipping his shorts.
Duodu then became alarmed and raised Esther’s dress to see what had happened in the room and found out her daughter was without pants.
He questioned her and Esther told him what Begyina did to her, disclosing that he had slept with her on two occasions; in the room and twice in the cocoa farm.
Duodu upon the information went to complain to the police leading to the arrest of the convict.
Begyina in his caution statement admitted having sexual intercourse with Esther and pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted on his plea by the court.
A medical form was issued for Esther’s examination and treatment and after careful investigation, Joseph Begyina was charged with the offense to stand trial.
Two individuals, Blessing Yeboah (19), a driver’s mate, and Isaac Ofosu (25), a mason apprentice, have been sentenced to seven years each with hard labor by the Dormaa-Ahenkro Circuit Court.
They were found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime and stealing a Bajaj tricycle valued at GH₵35,000.00.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charges with an explanation, but the court, presided over by Mr. Osei Kofi Amoako, convicted them based on their own admission.
According to Police Inspector Emmanuel Asare, the complainant, a tricycle rider residing in Koraso, a village near Dormaa-Ahenkro, reported the theft of his green Bajaj tricycle with registration number M-22-BA-109 on Thursday, May 4, 2023. Yeboah, the first accused, lived in Dormaa-Ahenkro, while Ofosu, the second accused, resided in Amangoase, Berekum.
The complainant reported the incident to the police, who provided him with an extract to announce the theft on local radio stations.
He said later, the Dormaa-Ahenkro Police received information from Wamfie Police that they had intercepted a Bajaj tricycle with the above-mentioned registration number and also arrested the convicts who were on board.
P/Insp. Asare stated that the Police accompanied by the complainant went to the place, saying the latter identified the tricycle as his and convicts were therefore re-arrested and detained for investigation.
He explained that the investigation revealed the convicts refused to stop at the Wamfie Police checkpoint and when the Police chased them, and escaped into a nearby bush, leaving behind the tricycle but were eventually apprehended.
P/Insp. Asare said during interrogations, the convicts admitted the offences and were accordingly charged and brought before the Court.
36-year-old Texas man Larry Pearson has been sentenced to 70 years in prison for allegedly spitting at Lubbock police officers, KLBK/KAMC reports.
Pearson was arrested in May 2022 when a person flagged down an officer for alleged domestic violence. The victim informed the officers that Pearson hit her multiple times and that he had a firearm. Prosecutor Jessica Gorman said the gun later turned out to be an airsoft gun, and the victim had “multiple visible injuries” at the time of the incident.
Pearson was taken into custody. At one point, he started to kick the doors inside the police vehicle, and when he was told to stop he spat at both of them. When he arrived at the Lubbock County Detention Center, he allegedly kept spitting at officers.
At the sentencing this week, Pearson was found guilty of two counts of harassment of a public servant. Gorman asked the jury to “send a message” to Pearson with his sentencing, noting that he had previous convictions of continuous family violence and aggravated robbery. On account of those convictions, he was facing a minimum sentence of 25 years. Instead, he was sentenced to 70 years.
“If you’re going to live the life of crime, you’re going to do that among other criminals [in prison],” said Gorman. “You’re not going to get 70 years for something like this when you’ve never been in trouble before.”
Pearson’s defense attorney Jim Shaw argued that his client was involved in a “simple misdemeanor,” and that the situation simply got “out of control.”
Five members of the outlawed separatist Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF) were each given five years in prison and hard labor by a court in Ghana’s capital Accra on Tuesday.
They were apprehended in 2020 for breaking into a police station, releasing prisoners, and obstructing highways to keep Ghanaians from traveling to the eastern Volta Region.
The five were accused of acting in a way that was “premeditated, aggravating, and an affront to the national security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the country,” according to the court.
Also, they received a term for being members of WTRF, an outlawed organization that promoted the secession of Ghana’s Volta and Oti Regions.
The High Court in Accra convicted a gang of three who pleaded guilty to 32 crimes to a total of 75 years in prison.
The convicts, Ishmael Akyene alias Israel Nana Damascus, Daniel Akpan alias Nseh alias Danny and Mbuotidem Edem alias Faith all pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy, robbery, rape and possession of firearms without lawful authority.
The charges comprised 12 counts of conspiracy, 16 counts of robbery and three counts of rape and possession of firearms without lawful authority.
The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh after convicting them in their own plea, sentenced them to 24 years for robbery, another 24 years for rape and 25 years for possession of firearms without lawful authority.
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, who was in court reports that the convicts are to serve their sentences concurrently, meaning they will serve only the highest of the three punishments which is 25 years.
Justice Yanzuh said the convicts are to serve their sentences in hard labour after considering all the mitigating pleas from defence lawyer Sani Rashid and the response from the prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecution, (DPP), Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa.
The court also ordered for the confiscation of the Kia Rio vehicle and guns retrieved from them while the implements used were ordered to be destroyed.
Monies retrieved GHc8.500 and other currencies as exhibits were to be disbursed to the rightful owners.
The convicts were said to have robbed volunteers from the UK who were in Ghana to partake in a charity project. They also had unprotected sex with six of the victims and raped a married woman twice.
Mitigation
Sani Rashid, counsel for the convicts in his plea for mitigation said the court should take into consideration the fact that the convicts showed remorse and did not waste the time of the court.
“Accused did not waste the court’s time. The first and 2 accused have been in custody for the past 4 years while the third has been in custody for about 3 years,” counsel said.
Ex-Convicts
Responding to the plea of mitigation, the DPP, Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa told the court that all three convicts are already known to the law.
She said they have been convicted by the lower court for robbery and are serving sentences at Nsawam.
She also told the court that the convicts also have dockets before the office of the Attorney General yet to be processed.
The DPP while agreeing with the defence that the convicts did not waste the time of the court, said the court should hand them punished not lower than 25 and 20 respectively for robbery and rape.
She also reminded the court to take notice of the offense of robbery especially when it is committed using force with weapons.
The convicts were said to have robbed volunteers from the UK who were in Ghana to partake in charity projects planned by Partnee West Africa.
Brief facts
Per the brief fact, the complainants are British nationals and a United Kingdom (UK) registered charity that operates in Ghana.
The prosecution said on December 8, 2018, a group of twelve volunteers comprising six male students, four female students, two teachers (one male and one female) visited Ghana from the U.K to partake in charity projects.
The prosecution said when the volunteer group was constituted in the U.K., they spent a year conducting fundraising activities and had obtained clothes of various sizes, stationary, toothpaste, toothbrushes, footballs, toys, and cash for the charity to give out as donations.
It said each of the 12 volunteers came with a suitcase full of these donation items and the group left the United Kingdom at about 5:00 am, transited through Portugal and Togo and arrived at the Kotoka International Airport at about 11pm.
The complainants it said went to meet them with a bus and sent them to a guesthouse, near Muuston Beach, Oshiyie, near Kokrobite, Accra.
The prosecution said, they arrived at the guesthouse at about 1:00am and the leader on the bus prevented the driver from entering the compound so they parked outside the gate and offloaded the suitcases from the bus and sent them into the house.
The complainants it said introduced the group to Naa the cook and Isaac who was responsible for maintenance.
It said both Naa and Isaac lived in a separate house on the compound of the guesthouse.
After the introduction, Isaac left for bed and Naa prepared a toast for some of the volunteers who wanted to eat while the complainants gave the group security and safety briefing and showed them around the house.
Armed men
The prosecution said, they first went to the boys’ room and continued to the girls’ room and whilst Naa was leaving the main house for her room, she found the accused persons at the door and immediately banged the door and ran to inform the rest of the group.
“The accused persons who were armed with guns, a knife, a taser and a long metal which was flat at one end and pointed at the other end, forced the door open and found most of the group members in the corridor outside the girls’ room,” the brief facts stated.
“The accused persons ordered all of them to enter the girls’ room and made them lie down on the floor. Sandy was however asked to lie on the bed,” and they “covered the heads of the victims with sheets, blankets and towels and informed them that they had to cooperate with them.”
It said, “With their weapons in hand, the accused persons stripped those among the fifteen victims who had bum bags and backpacks on, of their bags and took what they liked from them.”
Stolen items
It said, the accused persons also searched the pockets and bodies of the victims and took their mobile phones, iPads, power banks, money, jewelry, bags and bank cards.
It added that the accused persons made the victims disclose their PIN codes to the bank cards they had taken as well as the passwords in a blue mobile phone that was found in the first accused person’s car by the police when the first accused person saw them in the vicinity of his house and fled abandoning the car and its content.
Unprotected sex
The prosecution said all the accused persons forcibly had unprotected sex with six of the female victims with the third accused raping one married victim twice.
“The accused persons operated quietly and spent about three hours in the guesthouse,” and “they rummaged through the rooms and suitcases of the victims and eventually left the property at about 4:00am with their booty.”
The prosecution said when they eventually left, “the female victims went to the Finney Hospital and Fertility Centre where they were examined, and swabs were taken from each of them.”
It said, “upon the arrest of the accused persons, swabs were taken from them and subjected to DNA analysis.”
“The outcome showed that semen was found on three out of the six swabs taken from the six sexually assaulted female victims and the DNA in the semen matched the DNA of each of the accused persons.”
Account debit
The prosecution said the victims who came from the U.K left for the U.K the same day but one of the victims whose bank card was taken by the accused persons, received messages from his bank which indicated that the two who came out of a Green Kia Rio saloon car with Registration number GT 7892 X made the withdrawals.
The vehicle was traced to the first accused person who took to his heels as the Police got close to him.
The blue mobile phone which the accused persons used to record the phone passwords and bank PIN codes was found in the car.
His room was searched in the presence of a witness and other personal items of his were found including money.
“The CCTV footage of the Goil filling Station for that period was obtained and it indicated that two men who came out of a Green Kia Rio saloon car with registration number GT 7892 X made the withdrawals.
“The vehicle was traced to the first accused person who took to his heels as the Police got close to him.
“The blue mobile phone which the accused persons used to record the phone passwords and bank pin codes was found in the car.
“His room was searched in the presence of a witness and other personal items of his were found including money,” it stated.
Arrest
The IMEI numbers of some of the mobile phones the accused persons stole from the victims were obtained and they assisted in detecting the location of the accused persons.
The first accused person was eventually arrested and he led the police to the arrest of the second accused person.
The first and second accused persons took police to the third accused person’s house, but he managed to escape through the roof of his house and left for Nigeria.
The Police, however, found the third accused person’s Nigerian passport in his room, and same was taken for evidential purposes.
He was subsequently extradited from Nigeria to stand trial in Ghana and at identification parades organised on different dates, the complainants and Naa identified the first and third accused persons as part of the three men who attacked them on December 8, 2018.
The first and second accused persons also led the police to a spot near a refuse dump on a bush along the Legon road to retrieve the implements they used for committing crime including guns and ammunition.
American rapper, Kodak Black, has been declared wanted by authorities in Florida.
This is according to TMZ reports.
An arrest warrant was reportedly issued by a Broward County judge on Thursday, February 23 and filed in court on Friday after the rapper allegedly violated the conditions of his bail by failing to show up for a random drug test on Feb. 3. Authorities claim that when he finally did come in on Feb. 8, he tested positive for fentanyl. If he is apprehended, Kodak has been ordered to be kept in custody until his hearing from a previous case involving oxycodone is held.
Kodak was arrested in July of 2022 after police pulled the Back for Everything artist over. Police claimed they discovered 31 oxycodone pills following a search of the vehicle he was in. In response to the arrest, which took place in Ft. Lauderdale and saw him being charged with possession of a controlled substance without prescription and trafficking in oxycodone, Kodak’s attorney Bradford Cohen said that the rapper was legally prescribed the oxycodone that cops seized from the rapper. According to TMZ, Cohen also said that Kodak suffered from “chronic pain” as a result of being shot in Los Angeles in Feb. of 2022. Kodak was eventually released after posting bond. A condition of his release is that he be regularly drug tested.
Shortly after the shooting, which occurred outside The Nice Guy during Super Bowl weekend, Justin Bieber and Kodak were reportedly sued by two men. Mark Schaefer and Adam Rahman claimed they were shot in the incident and are placing blame on Kodak for allegedly escalating the situation. They’re also suing the venue, Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, and the City of West Hollywood.
Complex has reached out to Bradford Cohen for comment regarding the arrest warrant. Stay tuned as more information becomes available.
On March 25 of last year, the couple—who had been dating for six months—went to the Drawing Room wine bar after a few drinks.
A woman walked and sat down where they had been when they had left to use the jukebox.
Luke went over and asked her to move, which she did.
But then a second person sat there and when he went over to speak to her Downs marched over and asked ‘what’s going on?’.
Bronwyn and Luke were in ‘a happy relationship with few difficulties’ prior to the attack
Prosecutor Duncan Wilcock said: ‘The groups started to become abusive towards each other and someone picked up and threw a glass. A melee broke out and door staff came over to break it up.
‘A member of the door staff put [Downs] in a headlock and [Luke came over to try and get in between them and help her. It ended with him ushering her out of the venue.
‘When the pair got outside the venue the defendant told the complainant that she had left her bag inside.
‘He said he would sort it out but as he said this he realised that the defendant had clamped down onto his nose with her teeth and pulled.’
She spat the end of his nose, including nostrils, onto the floor before running off.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard Downs blacks out and ‘hits people and doesn’t know anything about it’ (Picture: Bronwyn Downs/ Cavendish Press)
Police later found her drifting in and out of consciousness.
Mr Wilcock said: ‘She said she hits people and doesn’t know anything about it. She said that her mother had something very similar.’
Luke did not support the prosecution, saying that Downs needed help rather than punishment.
Recorder Michael Blakey told her: ‘This was an unwarranted attack – a nasty attack. Perhaps you were drinking more than you can cope with.
‘The use of teeth is a weapon and the complainant has had to receive surgery as a result of this incident.
‘You know that drink and drugs don’t mix, you’ve got to take your pills but do not drink in excess once you have taken them.’
He handed her a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 16 months and must carry out 100 hours of community service.
Kumawoodactor Mohammed Tuffic popularly known as Yaw Mole has turned a new leaf after spending some time in jail.
The actor mentioned that following his experience in jail he has to change so he doesn’t end up going back to jail in future.
Narrating what led him to jail, he disclosed that he was too stubborn and thought he could beat anyone that comes his way therefore there was a fight in Tafo and he was involved.
Unfortunately for him, the police came to the location and he was arrested and processed before the court.
On his first appearance in court, he was denied bail and remanded into prison custody.
He said: “I was very stubborn and controversial because I was very strong and fit to overcome people who will attempt to fight me”
“During a clash between some youth in Tafo, I got arrested and remanded for some weeks and since then my life has never been the same”.
“I went for self-protection before my remand and I escaped many arrests but ever since I came out for prison, I have discarded my old ways just to have a new life and a new beginning” he revealed.
“I have suffered a lot in life but thank God I’m still alive but I have regretted how I wasted my life before in remand”
“When you visit Prisons and see how people are suffering due to the conditions in our prisons, it will humble you and transform your life. Kumawood Movie Industry has helped me because since I joined the industry, it keeps me busy and it has saved me from going back to my past” he added.
“I pray that the industry will bounce back again because thousands have been unemployed after the collapse of the industry”.
“I pray that God will help me to get money to support Ghana’s prison and the inmates because they are really suffering”.
An 80-year-old man is among four persons who have been slapped with jail sentences for inserting a stick into the anus of a teenager.
The convicts had accused the 16-year-old boy of breaking into a store in Agogo Market belonging to an octogenarian.
For his punishment, the convicts tied his hands to his back, tied his legs as well, and beat him mercilessly, after which they removed his boxer shorts and forcefully inserted a stick into his anus while filming the horrendous act.
This happened on March 12, 2021, at Agogo, Asante Akim North, in the Ashanti Region.
Six people, including Mr. Francis Obeng Amoako, who was then 79 years old, were arrested for the condemnable act.
The rest were Akwasi Marfo (Boat), 24, Boakye Dankwah, 65, Osei Bonsu, 53, Prince Asadu, 26, and 30-year-old Obeng Mensah.
On February 2, 2023, the Juaso Circuit Court, presided over by Her Honour Nana Asantewaa Attakora, discharged two of the accused—Obeng Mensah and Osei Bonsu—noting that though they were captured in the video, investigations proved that they did not take part in the act.
However, the remaining four were sentenced to varying degrees of incarceration, according to a local journalist, Yaw Preko of Ahwenepa FM.
Mr. Francis Obeng Amoako (now 80 years old) was sentenced to one year of imprisonment due to his age and health condition.
Akwasi Marfo (Boat) and Prince Asadu were handed down five years’ imprisonment each for abetment.
But Mr. Boakye Dankwah was slapped with six months’ imprisonment for hitting the boy’s head with his keys but failing to ask them to stop the commission of the crime.
The victim (name withheld) is currently in good health after undergoing surgery.
An alleged boss of a criminal organization, Pier Antonio Panzeri, linked to an EU corruption scandal has consented to divulge the nations and methods of operation.
A lawyer for Pier Antonio Panzeri said his client had agreed to “tell all” after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
The former member of the European Parliament is one of four suspects being held in Belgium.
They are suspected of accepting bribes from Qatar and Morocco in return for influencing the Parliament in Brussels.
Qatar has strenuously denied that it tried to gain influence through gifts and money while Morocco has also strongly rejected allegations that it sought influence on issues such as fishing rights and the disputed status of Western Sahara.
The four suspects were charged last month after police seized around €1.5m (£1.3m) in cash during a series of raids on a flat, a house and a hotel. Pictures of stashes of €200, €50, €20 and €10-denomination notes were released by police, including a suitcase found in the hotel which was stuffed with cash.
Prosecutors said Mr Panzeri agreed the plea deal under an informant law used only once before in Belgium.
His lawyer Marc Uyttendaele said he admitted “criminal responsibility”, adding: “It is important to know that this is a man who is destroyed and he doesn’t have much of a life left.”
But his client hoped to “secure his situation” by agreeing to “tell all he knows about the case”, Mr Uyttendaele added.
Image caption,Belgian police released pictures of the cash seized in last month’s raids
The other suspects include a serving Greek MEP, Eva Kaili, who has been stripped of her role as a vice-president of the Parliament, her partner Francesco Giorgi, and lobbyist Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
After Mr Panzeri, 67, left the Parliament, he became the head of a lobby group called Fight Impunity. Mr Figà-Talamanca worked from the same building in Brussels for a separate NGO.
According to a statement from Belgium’s federal prosecutor, the former MEP agreed to the plea bargain under a law modelled on an Italian provision for repentant mafia members or “pentiti” to turn state witnesses.
A spokesman said he faced a year in jail, rather than a “much heavier prison sentence”, as well as a fine and confiscation of €1m in assets.
In return he would be required to give details of how the network operated, what the financial arrangements were with the countries concerned, and “the involvement of known and unknown persons within the investigation, including the identity of the persons he admits to having bribed”.
The plea deal was released a day after an Italian court agreed to extradite the ex-MEP’s daughter, Silvia Panzeri, 38, on suspicion of involvement in the scandal.
The same court in the northern city of Brescia ruled last month that Mr Panzeri’s wife, Maria Colleoni, could also be extradited, but Italy’s top appeal court will give a final ruling on their case. The two women are currently under house arrest and deny allegations of corruption and money laundering.
Greek MEP Eva Kaili, who also denies involvement in the case, is suspected along with the others of taking bribes from Qatar in return for influencing EU policy-making.
Her partner Francesco Giorgi was reported to have confessed last month to his role in the affair.
However, a reference to “unknown” people within the investigation suggests more revelations are due to emerge.
Prosecutors have already sought to lift the immunity of two more centre-left MEPs, Belgian Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino.
Lawyers for both MEPs have denied that they played any part in the scandal, but the request is being reviewed by Parliament’s legal affairs committee.
A teacher who was wrongfully handed a 20-year jail term has been acquitted and discharged of any wrongdoing after spending 6 years in custody.
Maxwell Bernieh in an interview with Connect FM, narrated the ordeal of how he was wrongfully accused of rape just one month after starting his job.
“I was excited to have secured the job because I had been unemployed for some time. Just one month after being in the school, I was supervising an examination when some officers came to arrest me for no reason. I got to the Police station and I was accused of defiling a student I do not even know. I looked into the face of the girl and I had not even met her before because she was not in my class. I still did not understand what was happening and the case eventually proceeded to court,” he indicated.
Barnieh said he was subsequently jailed despite pleading not guilty at trial.
“Anytime the case is called, the girl in question will not show up and I will be told she is undergoing an operation. I still did not know what I had done to the girl that is making her go through an operation. After about seven months of trial, I was sentenced to 20 years in July 2016. I told the judge I was innocent but she did not listen. She only told me to file an appeal. I was sent to Nsawam,” he narrated.
But according to him, salvation came from private legal practitioner, lawyer Martin Kpebu who took over his appeal and won him his freedom after months of trial at the high court.
“The prosecution, therefore, failed to lead evidence to show that it was the accused person who defiled the victim. Having found that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused person had sexual intercourse with the victim, then it follows that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. This ground of appeal succeeds. With such failure to establish the essential elements of the offense, it follows that the offense charged was not established against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt and he ought not to have been convicted.
“The result is that the appeal succeeds and same is upheld. I hereby set aside the conviction and ultimately the sentence imposed on the appellant herein. The appellant is accordingly acquitted and discharged,” part of the appeal ruling by her ladyship Justice Mary M.E Nsenkyere (Mrs) indicated.
Crime Check has rescued a man who was ‘unjustly’ sent to jail for two years after he stole 8 fowls.
Through the intervention of the NGO, the man has been set free after his fine was paid. Crime Check is an NGO that sensitises the public to the dangers of crime through the screening of Life in Prison documentaries in schools, churches, mosques, communities and other trouble spots in Ghana.
The official Facebook page of the foundation shared the sad story as seen below;
“8 fowls = 2years in jail. Much as we should all not condone crime, Kwame Adra could have been desilting the gutters if we had a Non-Custodial Law in place. He lost his mum at an early age and had to bear the hatred of a stepmother.
He wouldn’t also go to school because he believes he is not good enough to waste his time listening to a teacher. Many Kwame Adras around but prison should not be a quick option for all these Petty Offenders when politicians use technicalities in court to delay their trial after stealing huge sums of money from the public purse.
We paid his fine and got him released under our Ex-convict Reintegration Project and warned him to sin no more.
A woman who witnessed her boyfriendkill six members of his own family in February 2016 has been given a 25-year prison term, sources at the Chicago-Sun Times say.
25-year-old Jafeth Ramos pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery in connection with the 2016 killings, which were committed by her former boyfriend Diego Uribe. She admitted that she accompanied Urbe to his aunt Maria Martinez’s home in 2016, where he fatally shot her after demanding money. Uribe also beat her brother Noe Martinez Jr. to death, fatally stabbed their mother Rosaura Martinez, killed their 10-year-old and 13-year-old children, and killed Noe Martinez Sr. when he returned home. Ramos and Uribe were arrested in May 2016.
Ramos was facing almost 500 criminal counts in connection with the killings, but entered the guilty plea as part of a deal with Cook County prosecutors after agreeing to testify against Uribe, who was sentenced to life in prison last month. Uribe is not believed to have directly killed any of the six victims, but she was still described by authorities as an “active participant” in the killings. The pair stole an Xbox and approximately $550 in cash.
In court, she testified that she accompanied Uribe to the family’s home, and admitted that she did not call for help or try to leave during the ordeal. When she was sentenced on Tuesday, she declined to give a statement. She told jurors she accepted the plea deal in hopes she could see her son again.
She described how Uribe killed all of the family members, although his attorneys argued that he was present when the family was killed in a robbery by four masked men gone wrong.
Disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti, has been sentenced to a 14-year jail term after he was found guilty of defrauding his clients.
The Associated Press reports Avenatti was sentenced to 14 years in prison for wire fraud and endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Interal Revenue Service on Monday. He has been ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution to his former clients, as well as the IRS.
As part of his guilty plea earlier this year, Avenatti admitted to stealing millions from four of his clients, but insisted the amount was “drastically less” than the $9 million claimed by federal prosecutors. He was accused of negotiating settlements for his clients and lying about the terms of their agreement. After receiving a payment, Avenatti would transfer the money into his own accounts before telling clients he had not received anything.
“Michael Avenatti was a corrupt lawyer who claimed he was fighting for the little guy. In fact, he only cared about his own selfish interests,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement in response to his sentencing. “He stole millions of dollars from his clients—all to finance his extravagant lifestyle that included a private jet and race cars. As a result of his illegal acts, he has lost his right to practice law in California, and now he will serve a richly deserved prison sentence.”
Avenatti will begin his 14-year sentence once he completes four years behind bars for pocketing almost $300,000 owed to adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of her Full Disclosure book deal.
Five suspects made up of three Nigeriannationals and 2 Ghanaians have been re-arrested after attempting to escape police custody.
The escapees were in detention following their arrest for various offences such as stealing mobile phones, and air-conditioners among others.
According to a Dailyguidenetwork.com report, the suspects made their move on Monday, November 21, 2022, at about 1 am with the help of a chisel and a hammer.
Their attempt was in a bid to evade court arraignment within the week.
The suspects succeeded in breaking the iron bars of the cell but saw their efforts thwarted by the officers on duty who became alarmed by the unusual noise emanating from the cells.
The Awutu Bereku Police Command has since rounded up the suspects and transferred them to a different police station for safekeeping pending their trial.
A Georgia sheriff’s office has come under fire over the brutal beating of a Black detainee.
The incident reportedly took place on Sept. 3 in Camden County, Georgia, where 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs was arrested for non-violent offenses, including speeding, driving with a suspended/revoked license, and possession of a controlled substance.
Weeks after the arrest, videos from the Camden County Jail surfaced on social media; they showed five sheriff’s office employees beating Hobbs in a holding cell before dragging him into the hallway, where they appear to strike him with their knees.
According to the New York Times, an officer testified that Hobbs was kicking his cell door before the beating took place, and allegedly refused to comply with orders to stop.
Following the attack, officers placed the North Carolinaresident in solitary confinement and charged him with aggravated battery, simple assault, and obstruction of law enforcement officers.
Harry Daniels, one of the attorneys representing Hobbs, said the officers’ actions were “inexcusable,” and is now calling for criminal charges.
“Mr. Hobbs entered the Camden County Jail suffering a psychological episode and asking to be placed in protective confinement. But instead of protecting him, these deputies jumped him and beat and kicked him mercilessly like a gang of dangerous thugs,” Daniels wrote in a statement, adding that the officers also ripped a loc out of Hobbs’ scalp. “This wasn’t some arrest that got out of hand or a judgment call made out of fear for your life. This was targeted gang violence pure and simple. It just so happens that the gang members were wearing badges and we’re calling on the District Attorney to bring charges immediately.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations confirmed it is looking into the incident, while the Camden County Sheriff’s office conducts an internal investigation.
The sheriff’s office has not identified the five officers in the video, but said they have each been placed on administrative duty.
“This was done so they would be readily available for interviews by the investigators conducting the investigation,” Captain James L. Bruce told FOX 5.
After 33 years in jail, a Ghanaian man named Tetteh has been released after a killer falsely named him and one other person as his accomplices in a murder case.
The killer, Tengey, accused Tetteh of being his accomplice while people were beating him (Tengey) to name his accomplice before he will be spared.
Tengey also mentioned Gruma, another accomplice when the beatings did not stop. Tetteh and Gruma, however, insisted that they were innocent of the crime.
Accused persons sentenced to death
Tetteh and Gruma were still sentenced to death with Tengey after police investigations. Gruma, however, died out of shock after spending three months in prison.
In an interview with Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng of the Crime Check TV GH at the Ankafo Maximum Security Prison four years ago, Tengey confessed that his accomplices knew nothing about the murder.
Confessing to free the wrongfully convicted
The convict sat in the interview with Tetteh who he falsely accused, saying he deliberately named the latter and the late Gruma with the hope that he will be spared the beatings as he pleaded with Tetteh to forgive him.
Following the confession of Tengey, Tetteh has been set free from prison after spending 33 years in prison.
Tetteh recently sat for an interview with Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng to recount his story amid tears.
The Agona Swedru Magistrate Court has remanded a 24-year-old driver for allegedly killing Opanyin Kweku Oppong Abdulai, a 70-year-old cocoa farmer at Agona Abodom in the Central Region.
The plea of the accused, Samuel Appiah, was not taken and would reappear in court on October 17.
Prosecuting Sergeant Emmanuel Akunor told the court presided over Mr Isaac Apeatu that the accused resides at Ofaakor, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central region.
He said the complainant in the case was Madam Halifatu Abdulai, a daughter of the deceased based at Agona Abodom in the Agona West.
The prosecution said the deceased owned a cocoa farm at Dapong, a village near Upper Bobikuma, and shared boundary with the accused father’s cocoa farm, of which the accused is the caretaker.
He said about three weeks ago, the accused visited the village and a misunderstanding ensued between him and the deceased over missing cocoa beans that belonged to the deceased, which the accused was suspected of stealing.
The prosecution said according to the complainant, she received a call on September 21, from her late father to come to him because he was afraid the accused might harm him due to the accused’s demeanour.
The complainant later received another call from a nearby village that the deceased had gone missing, and that a search team highly suspected the accused arrested and handed him over to the Upper Bobikuma Police for investigation.
The prosecution said while the search team continued with the search on September 22, the body of the late Opanyin Abdulai was found lying under a mango tree covered with timber slaps and was taken to the Swedru Government Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The prosecution said after intensive interrogations, the accused confessed killing the 70-year-old cocoa farmer for accusing him of stealing the cocoa beans.
Ecuador has launched an investigation into the killing of four Giant Galapagos islands tortoises, which prosecutors fear were hunted and eaten.
Remains of the reptiles were found in a national park on Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos.
Killing the endangered animals has been banned since 1933 but more than a dozen have been hunted in the last two years.
Tortoise meat was once considered a delicacy, but those who hunt them now face up to three years in jail.
In September 2021, park rangers found the remains of 15 Sierra Negra giant tortoises on Isabela.
Photos of their empty shells were widely shared on social media and caused outrage in Ecuador – of which the Galapagos Islands are part of – and beyond.
Evidence gathered at the time suggested the 15 had been hunted for their meat.
The recent discovery of remains of four more animals has reignited fears that the practice continues despite the total hunting ban.
Experts will carry out post-mortems on the remains and a unit specialising in environmental crimes is collecting testimonies from national park agents.
Giant Galapagos tortoises have a lifespan of more than 100 years and are synonymous with Charles Darwin, who pioneered the theory of evolution by studying them.
The ship Darwin sailed on, The Beagle, took 30 live tortoises on its long voyage from the Galapagos to Polynesia. Most of them were eaten by the crew.
There are currently about 15,000 of the giant tortoises in the world, compared to 200,000 in the 19th Century.
An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a 53-year-old Trader to 15 years imprisonment for defiling his wife’s 12-year-old niece at Afuaman near Ablekumah in the Greater Accra Region.
This was after the Court presided over by Mrs Christina Cann, found Amadu Moro guilty on the charge of defilement.
Handing the sentence, the Court said it found the accused guilty, following the perusal of the evidence on record, careful consideration of the charge, exhibits and the applicable law.
According to the Court, it also considered the intrinsic seriousness of the offence, degree of revulsion and the premeditation.
The facts of the prosecution led by Inspector Opoku Aniagyei are that the complainant is a housewife, and the victim is the complainant’s niece.
Inspector Aniagyei said Moro is the husband of the complainant and they both resided at Mahean Afuaman in the Greater Accra Region.
During the month of October 2021, one night, the complainant woke up to urinate and to her surprise, she saw accused having sexual intercourse with the victim.
Prosecution said the complainant later reported the matter to the Police at Nima and a medical form was issued to the complainant to seek medical treatment for the victim.
The prosecutor said the accused was nabbed by the Police, but he denied the offence in his caution statement.
When the Police medical report was received it indicated that the victim had been defiled.
An Accra Circuit Court has granted bail to six persons who allegedly stole 353 bags of fertilizer valued GHS147,333.
38, belonging to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
Charles Adavlo, Sadick Abubakar, Daniel Asante and Eric Twum are on a GHS40,000.00 bail with two sureties each, to be justified.
Somalia Mustapha and Haruna Ajaililu, on the other hand, were granted a GHS110,604.38 bail with two sureties each, all to be justified.
They have all denied conspiring to steal the items.
The Court presided over by Mrs Ellen Offei Ayeh ordered them to come back to the Court on August 8, 2022.
Prosecuting, Police Inspector Wisdom Alorwu told the Court that the Complainants were Policemen from the Accra Regional Police Headquarters whilst Al Charles Adavlo and Abubakar were drivers, and both resided at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region.
He said Asante was a Mason and Twum, a dispatch rider and that both lived at Jamasi in the Ashante Region. Prosecution said Mustapha and Ajaililu were also a driver and a driver’s mate, respectively and both resided at Techiman in the Bono East.
Inspector Alorwu said on June 30, 2021 the Accra Regional Police Command had information that the accused persons and other accomplices yet to be arrested, had stolen COCOBOD fertilizers meant for cocoa farmers. They culprits were transporting the fertilizers from Accra through Dadeso to Burkina Faso.
The Court heard that a team of Policemen was dispatched to track the suspects and apprehend them.
The team, prosecution said, monitored the accused persons from Accra and arrested Adavlo, Twum, Asante and Abubakar at Jamasi on July 01, 2022 together with a Hyundai Mighty Truck with the registration number GR 521-12 loaded with 88 bags of the fertilizer valued GHS36,729.00.
He said Adavlo led the team to Dadeso where Mustapha and Jalilu were also arrested together with a KIA RHINO Truck, registration number AS 8049-18 loaded with 265 bags of fertilizer valued GHS110,604.375.
The accused persons mentioned the names of other accomplices who are yet to be apprehended, prosecution said, adding that they were escorted to the Accra Region Police Headquarters and the trucks with the 353 bags of the exhibit fertilizer, valued GHS147,333.375 were impounded.
Inspector Alorwu said a man-hunt was arranged for the other accomplices and that the accused persons after investigations were charged with the offences.
An Asamankese circuit court has sentenced a 20-year-old motorbike rider identified as Emmanuel Afanu to 15 years imprisonment for robbery.
His conviction was after he was found guilty of charges which includes conspiration to commit a crime, to wit, robbery, and robbery.
The offence is contrary to section149 of the criminal offences Act1960(Act 29).
According to a myjoyonline.com report, the prosecutor, Inspector Samuel Owusu, said the accused, together with his friend who is at large, on April, 8, robbed his victim of an iPhone 7 plus mobile phone valued at Ghs2,500.00 after he assaulted Sakyi Michael, the complaint, with a pair of scissors at Yayo a suburb of Asamankese.
The complainant, a student who lives at Anum-Asamakese, and was on his way home at around 7:50 pm when he was attacked.
The convict is reported to have snatched the complaint phone and during the process the two engaged in fisticuff of which the convict inflicted the victim with a pair of scissors, bolting away with the phone.
However, Emmanuel Afanu was arrested and sent to the Asamankese Police station by some residents after the complaint screamed for help.
After a police investigation, he was found guilty and convicted to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.
Seven prisoners have escaped from Prison custody in Sandema in the Upper East region.
According to information available to MyNewsGh, the convict prisoners who had been kept in a separate cell awaiting their transportation to Gambaga prisons suddenly appeared violent and apprehensive and started hitting the cells metal gate.
The Police on duty while in the process of taking steps to call for reinforcement to prevent their intended plans, seven out of the ten convict prisoners escaped by forcing the metal plate at the lower part of the gate inn to gain ingress to the corridor and forced the wooden door leading to the charge office open.
The seven include Amondrn Azaari, Kwesi Achalipaabey, Albert Walera, Awenyok David, Moses Amoak, Kaseley Nab and Abaniakame Adocta.
Meanwhile, there is a manhunt for the prison escapees whiles disciplinary action has been taken against defaulters.
Two domestic workers have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court for stealing $14,000 and GH¢10,500 belonging to their mistress.
Dorcas Ahenkorah is to serve four years, while Regina Akosua A. Aboagyewaa will serve three years.
The two were found guilty on the charges of conspiracy to commit crime and stealing at the end of the trial presided over by Mrs. Ellen Ofei Ayeh.
In the case of Regina, she is said to have used her share of the booty to rent a two-bedroom and purchased a mobile phone and other personal effects.
Dorcas also is said to have used her share of the booty to renovate her father’s house at Akim Awisa in the Eastern Region.
The court however earlier acquitted and charged one Bright Amoah who was charged with abetment of crime.
Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fusieni Yakubu said the complainant Nana Adwoa Agyeman Afrifah is a businesswoman residing at Labone Estates in Accra.
The Prosecutor said Regina lived with the complainant for about six years while Dorcas also lived with her for about three years.
The Prosecution said the complainant was experiencing a series of theft of her money in her bedroom but did not know who was behind it. She however did not report the case to the police.
According to Prosecution on December 21, last year, the complainant kept white envelopes containing GH¢15,000 and $14,000 in her brown lady’s handbag under her bed.
On December 22, last year, the complainant realised her GH¢10,500 and the $14,000 had been stolen.
The prosecution said the complainant suspected the convicts.
Upon her suspicion, the complainant invited Regina and Dorcas and questioned them about the rate at which her monies were disappearing in her bedroom and they admitted that they had been stealing the monies.
The Prosecution said both of them told the complainant what they used the money for.
Regina later led the complainant to retrieve the items she used the booty to acquire.
The Prosecution said on December 30, the complainant reported the matter to the police, and the accused were arrested.
During the investigation, Regina admitted in her investigation caution statement that she mooted the idea with Dorcas and Dorcas agreed to it.
Regina said Dorcas kept watch, while she stole their mistress.
The prosecution said Regina bought some personal effects, a phone totalling GH¢5,513.
A 29-year-old man, Kwaku Oduro, also known as Agya Kwabena Oppong, a taxi driver and a native of Konongo has been jailed by an Accra circuit court for 12 years for carjacking.
According to the prosecution, on 31 August 2020, Kwaku Oduro hired the services of a taxi driver around 2:30 am from Achimota overhead to Anyaa.
However, a few meters to his desired destination, Kwaku Oduro signalled the driver to stop exactly where two young men were by then waiting.
The taxi driver sensed danger upon seeing them and immediately sped off with Kwaku Owusu to the nearest police station and called out for her.
The police took custody of Mr Oduro for investigations into the complaint of the driver.
At the station, another complainant who had also fallen victim to car snatching the previous day and lost his Daewoo Matiz taxi cab in the process, identified Kwaku Oduro as the same suspect who snatched his vehicle through the same modus operandi.
Kwaku Oduro could not deny the allegation and broke down in confession, pleading for forgiveness.
He was subsequently arraigned and found guilty of an attempted robbery by a Circuit Court.
He was convicted to 12 years imprisonment with hard labour, as he awaits further trial for his involvement in the other carjacking crimes.
The Nkawie circuit court has sentenced an 18-year-old unemployed man, who attacked and stabbed a community police assistant at Toase in the Atwima-Nwabiagya South Municipality, to five years in prison.
Ernest Dwamena pleaded guilty for stabbing the officer, who was stationed at the Nkawie Division of the Ghana Police Service, in the ribs at a public toilet without any provocation.
He was sentenced on his own plea.
Detective Inspector Anthony Acheampong told the court presided over by Mr Johnson Abbey that the incident occurred on June 1, 2019.
He said the convict, together with an accomplice, who is still at large, attacked the victim with a kitchen knife until he fell unconscious.
Inspector Acheampong said the victim was rescued by a group of students and rushed to the Nkawie government hospital but was transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for Emergency treatment.
The prosecution said the convict was arrested on June 28, 2020 and admitted the offence in his caution statement.
Ten persons on remand at the Ashaiman police station in the Greater Accra region have tested positive for Covid-19.
Commander in charge of the station who confirmed this to TV3 said they only got to know after a random test was conducted by health officials two weeks ago.
54 samples were taken with ten proving positive. They have been isolated, he said.
The police officers are yet to go into self-isolation as they also await the results of their tests.
Currently, Ghana’s coronavirus case count now 5,127.
This was announced by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Aboagye at a media briefing on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
The Greater Accra region has recorded 89 new cases whilst the Ashanti region has 307 new cases. The Central region has also recorded 27 new cases with the Western and Volta regions recording 3 and 1 new cases respectively.
According to Dr. Aboagye, majority of the new cases were recorded from workplaces.
The United Nations says 85 children have been released from detention in South Sudan as part of efforts to ease crowding in jails during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 11 others will remain in prison because of the severity of their alleged offences.
The UN Children’s Fund said those who had been freed were reunited with their parents or legal guardians.
It said prisons in South Sudan are overcrowded, with inadequate sanitation and healthcare – conditions highly conducive to the spread of Covid-19.
The country does not have a juvenile justice system, with many children locked in jail with adults, often for minor offences.
A 49-year-old Ghanaian voodoo practitioner in Scotland will be deported to Ghana after brutally beating his wife.
Michael Yartey, who throttled a trainee doctor has been jailed for 82 days and will be deported back to West Africa on his release.
Yartey came to Scotland from Ghana to start a new life with his medic wife but attacked her days after arriving in Perth.
He who told police voodoo was his religion, had been sponsored to live in the UK by his wife Jessie Vanderpuije.
But she has withdrawn her sponsorship after being subjected to a violent assault in her own home when Yartey seized her by the throat during a row.
He then hurled her to the ground and refused to leave the house in Cedar Drive, Perth, on February 11 this year.
As well as being jailed for 82 days, Yartey was made the subject of a non-harassment order banning him from approaching or contacting his estranged partner.
He was unable to provide a post-release address and, as a result, will be deported back to Ghana after spending the majority of his time in Scotland behind bars.
Perth Sheriff Court was told Yartey arrived from Ghana, where 13 per cent of the population follow the voodoo faith, on January 29 to start a new life.
However, he was arrested and taken into custody after attacking Jessie less than a fortnight later and has been locked up ever since.
Yartey wept in the dock when he initially appeared from custody and admitted seizing her by the throat and pushing her to the ground.
He also admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner by refusing to leave the house.
Fiscal depute Bill Kermode told the court: “The complainer is no longer willing to be his sponsor, so the grounds for him to remain in the UK will no longer exist and he is likely to be deported back to Ghana.â€
