AN ACCRA Circuit Court has convicted and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, a mason who attacked a telecommunication airtime vendor in an attempt to rob her bag containing top up cards, at Ofankor.
The convict, Tsevi Akakpo Duvo, in his attempt to rob the victim, reportedly slapped her several times in the face and strangled her when she resisted him.
The convict pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempt to commit crime when he appeared before the court last year.
However, the trial judge, Francis Obiri, yesterday held that the prosecution was able to prove that Duvo committed the crime.
The court observed that the convict’s denial in the box was an afterthought since in his statement to the police he had admitted committing the offence.
The judge held that robbery had become a national problem and therefore the likes of the convict should be confined for a long period and not to be allowed to mingle with well-meaning citizens in the society.
The prosecution, led by Joyce Debrah, in presenting the facts of the case, stated that the complainant, Agnes Opoku lives at Odorkor and sells mobile phone top up cards while the suspect is a mason living at Sarpeiman.
According to the prosecutor, at about 8:40pm on January 1, 2012, the complainant was returning from her master’s shop at Ofankor where she had gone to collect some top up cards to sell the next day, when the convict attacked her.
The complainant reportedly had hung her bag containing the top-ups around her neck and was with her seven-year-old daughter.
Duvo suddenly attacked her by slapping her severally in the face and further ordered her to surrender the bag to him.
The complainant, the prosecutor stated, resisted but the convict held her throat and tried to snatch the bag from her.
The complainant and her daughter shouted for help, attracting a passer-by.
The witness, according to the prosecutor, shouted at the suspect and asked him to leave the complainant alone.
Sensing danger, the suspect ran across the main road and escaped.
Although the witness chased him, he could not get hold of him due to oncoming vehicles.
The complainant later described Duvo to some men in the vicinity who gave his phone number to her to call the suspect under the pretext of offering him employment.
When he turned up, he was arrested and handed over to the police.
The complainant later identified him as the one who attacked and attempted to rob her.
According to the prosecutor, Duvo admitted attacking the complainant in his caution statement but stated that he did so in order to collect money the complainant owed him.
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