Five car snatchers jailed 75 years

The Tamale Circuit Court presided by His Honor Alexandra Oworae, has sentenced five accused persons to 15 years each in prison for snatching a Toyota Camry car at Banvum, a suburb of Tamale in the Northern region.

The convicted persons are Ibrahim Issah 27, Mohammed Mustapha, 23, Vivor Christopher 27, Benyamin Ajyei, 23, and Seyram Addo 29.

This was after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob, robbery, possession of firearms and ammunition without lawful authority, and possession of police and military accoutrements charges leveled against them.

The fifteen years sentence will run concurrently.

However, another suspect, Alhassan Mohammed, a teacher who is alleged to be an informant of the gang has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been remanded into prison custody to reappear in court on February 9, 2022.

Another suspect was arrested in connection with the case Mahama Nashiru alias Mohammed, 28 appeared before the Tamale Circuit court and granted bail of Gh 50,000 with two sureties.

He is expected to reappear in court on February 3, 2022.

On Sunday, January 23, 2022, the five were arrested by the Buipe highway patrol team on duty at Sawaba Police checkpoint in two vehicles with registration numbers AS8445-19 and GX6923-20.

A search conducted on them found 13 assorted mobile phones, one Falcon Foreign Pistol loaded with 9mm ammunition, a wallet containing a bunch of keys together with two handcuffs keys, two Voter’s ID Cards, Melcom card, Access Bankcard, and cash the sum of GHC21.20p. Some Military uniforms, Police Ballistic helmets, and police uniforms were also found in the Toyota Camry Spider with registration number GX6923-20.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has distanced itself from the alleged military officer who was arrested with four others at Buipe in the Savannah region for allegedly snatching a car in Tamale in the Northern region.

A statement signed by Andy La-Anyone, Commander Acting Director Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces said “We wish to state categorically that the suspect is not a soldier of the Ghana Armed Forces. The Armed Forces are worried about the rising spate of impersonation by civilians, either wearing military uniforms or posting of fake pictures of themselves as military officers to defraud unsuspecting Ghanaians.”