The taxi driver, Richard Klutsey together with four others, currently at large, is being prosecuted by the state on five counts of robbery, all contrary to Section 149 of the Criminal Offences Act1960 (Act 29).

The taxi driver and his accomplices were reported to the police by Emmanuel Nyankson and his wife, Patricia Nyankson, one Sylvia Koufie, Jessica Offei, Akoto Patricia and Dosu Benedicta who are residents of New Legon in Greater Accra.

The taxi driver lived at Kitas-Aburi in the Eastern region.

According to the brief facts before the Circuit Court presided over by Madam Rosemary Baah Torsu, on December 21, 2019 at about 9:00pm, Patricia Nyankson and Sylvia Koufie decided to go and have their hair done for church service the next day at Jessica’s saloon at New Legon.

Sylvia Koufie got to the saloon first and Patricia Nyankson also surfaced in her white Toyota corolla at the saloon later on, at a time Klutsey and his alleged gangs had also teamed up to go on a robbery spree at the area.

To succeed in their enterprise, the gang of five armed themselves with locally manufactured pistols to launch an attack on unsuspected victims, which the complainants were allegedly caught in their web.

Accordingly, the accused persons attacked the complainants when they spotted the car parked in front of the saloon.

Thus soon after they entered the saloon and ordered all the victims to surrender all their valuables or else they will be killed.

It was said that Klutsey targeted the ignition key with Mrs Nykanson and robbed it, stepped out and started the car while awaiting for the other accomplices to join him.

The others also succeeded in robbing the victims of their mobile phones namely Samsung Android, Samsung Galaxy C7, Samsung Galaxy A9 and Motorola belonging to Jessica Offei, Sylvia Koufie, Patricia Nyankson and Akoto Patience respectively and joined the car and bolted.

On January 8, 2020, investigations led to the arrest of Roberta Tarkie, the wife of Klutsey by the police.

A search conducted in her room by the police led to the discovery of the Gold Samsung Galaxy C7 belonging to Sylvia Koufie, who is a sister of Mrs Nyankson.

Roberta during interrogation told the police that her husband, Klutsey, gave her the phone to use.

On January 12, 2020, investigations led to the arrest of Klutsey who admitted the offence in his caution statement and mentioned Solo Palaago, Shark and two other as his accomplices.

Further investigations led to the arrest of one Mustapha Issah whom A1 had directed to hide a polythene bag containing his locally manufactured pistol, which according to him never knew the content of what he was actually hiding.

He, however, led the police for the retrieval of the pistol.

Investigation is still ongoing to apprehend his accomplices and to recover the rest of the items robbed.

By Akutu Dede Adimer