Four persons remanded for robbery
Pastor on trial for defilement
Four persons remanded for robbery
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 November 2000
Four men accused of stealing 51 million cedis from a Madina forex bureau were remanded in prison custody by an Accra Circuit Tribunal on Wednesday.
They are John Obanor, a 33-year-old Nigerian taxi driver stationed at Saint Johns GPRTU branch in Accra; Raymond Paul Kwabena Frimpong, 33, a Ghanaian building technician who lives at Tantra Hills, near Achimota; Paul Onus Ashaka, a 28-year-old unemployed Nigerian with no fixed abode; and Mohammed Abubakari, a 73-year-old Ghanaian painter residing at Alogboshi near Achimota. Their pleas were not taken and they will reappear on November 8.
Chief Inspector Edward Antwi told the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Ziblim Moru, that on October 16 at about 1:45 p.m., Obanor, Frimpong, Ashaka and two other Nigerian suspects, now at large, attacked a cashier at AL-MAL forex bureau at Madina. Two of the men were armed with locally manufactured pistols.
The Prosecution said the accused ordered Iddrisu Issaka, the cashier, to lie down or face death. Issaka obeyed and the robbers stole cash totalling 51 million cedis, in local and foreign currencies and then fled in a waiting Opel Cadet taxicab with registration number GR 8270 R. Issaka telephoned his managing director and then alerted the police.
The prosecutor said Peace FM, a local radio station, broadcast the registration number and a description of the taxi.
The regular driver, who gave his taxicab to Obanor as a spare driver, informed the police at Achimota, where the accused lives.
The police arrested Abubakari, the landlord of Obanor, and the three others as they were sharing the booty in Obanor's room.
Chief Inspector Antwi said police found a cash of 7.5 million cedis, one US dollar, five pounds sterling, and 20,000 CFA.
A locally manufactured pistol with live ammunition allegedly used in the robbery was retrieved from Ashaka's pocket, he said.
The prosecutor said Obanor, Frimpong and Ashaka admitted committing a series of robberies in the Accra Metropolis.
They named Pius Ogoro, alias Paapa, and Eze Obi, both Nigerians, who are at large, as accomplices.
Pastor on trial for defilement
Aflao (Volta Region) 02 November 2000
Pastor Senafia Ganyo, 50, of the Evangelical Bible Ministry at Aflao, who allegedly defiled his niece's daughter on several occasions, is on trial at the Aflao Circuit Tribunal.
Ganyo pleaded not guilty to defilement and is on a 10 million-cedi bail with one surety to justify. He will re-appear on November 13.
Inspector Kofi Frimpong told the tribunal, presided over by Mr. Francis Poku, that during the last school holidays, Ganyo visited the victim and her mother at Awutu-Beraku in the Central Region.
The accused asked his niece to allow him to take her daughter with him to Aflao to continue her education while helping his wife in the house.
Inspector Frimpong said on reaching Accra on his way back to Aflao with the victim, Ganyo spent the night in a hotel and asked her to share one of the two beds in the room with him so that he could use her cover cloth. During the night, Ganyo forcibly had sex with the victim several times.
Inspector Frimpong said back at Aflao, Ganyo continued to defile the victim but failed to enrol her in one of the junior secondary schools as promised.
He said it got to a point where the victim could no longer bear Ganyo's demands and she escaped to her father's relatives at Dzodze.
At Dzodze, Inspector Frimpong said the victim was heard by a relative groaning and, when asked what was wrong with her, she narrated her ordeal in the hands of Ganyo. She was led to the Aflao Police station where she made a report.
Inspector Frimpong said a medical examination requested by the police indicated that the victim was "carnally known" and that her hymen had been broken.
GRi…/