A civilian employee at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters who posed as a staff of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in-charge of gutters, has been put before the Accra Circuit Court “One” for allegedly robbing a Fan Milk vendor at the Neoplan Station in Accra.
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Gulliver Kwabena Tenkorang, told the court presided by Mr Aboagye Tandoh that the accused, Rubben Asamoah, confronted Mr Patrick Ali who was urinating in a gutter behind the Neoplan Lorry Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle on February 22, 2019, at about 2:15am and introduced himself to the victim as “AMA official in-charge of the gutter earmarked for him to monitor offenders and charge them a spot fine of GH¢50.00.”
The (accused) told Mr Ali to pay GH¢50.00 as penalty for urinating in the gutter but he refused.
Not quite long, Adbul Razak, also known as Rastaman, an accomplice, appeared on the scene, joined his colleague (Rubben) and they attempted to forcibly snatch the victim’s bag which contained an unspecified amount of money being the proceeds from his daily sales of fan milk but he fiercely resisted them.
The prosecutor said that Rubben Asamoah and Abdul Razak dragged the victim to the Neoplan Station and subjected him to severe beatings and in the process the 2nd accused (Rubben) slashed the left thumb of the fan milk vendor with a sharp implement believed to be a knife, snatched his bag and passed it on to the 1st accused (Abdul Razak)
He said that whilst Razak was about to run away with the hand bag, the victim raised an alarm attracting some drivers at the lorry station to the scene, they arrested the culprits and retrieved the bag with some of its content including GH¢605.00 cash.
Chief Inspector Tenkorang said that the accused were later handed over to the police for investigation but they denied the offence in their caution statement.
Mr Aboagye Tandoh remanded them in police custody to appear again on April 1, 2019, for pleading not guilty to the charges of conspiracy and Robbery.
By Castro Zangina-Tong
