An Accra Fast Track High Court on Thursday sentenced two young men, Stephen Kwabena Appenteng, 23, and Oscar Kweku Asenso, 21, to 40 and 20 years respectively imprisonment in hard labour for
conspiracy to commit crime and robbery.
The two who were charged in June this year, initially pleaded not guilty.
The victim, Samuel A. O. Johnson, a taxi driver, told the court that he took the accused persons from Dansoman to Alajo, a suburb of Accra, where they offered to pay for a fuel he bought at a filling station to cover the fare.
Later, the accused persons asked the driver to return them to Lapaz after which he drove them to Dansoman. At Dansoman, they again told the
driver to take them to Suhum, in the Eastern Region to visit Appenteng's wife.
On their way, the driver demanded GH¢80 as his fare, but the accused refused and lured him to use an unknown root, which he did. Few meters on
that road, which was bumpy, the accused persons attacked the driver.
Oscar, sitting at the back, tied the driver's neck with a rope from behind driver's seat, and Stephen pull out his knife which he used to
stabbed him at his right rib.
They later dragged him out of the car and sped off with the car. The accused persons managed to escape but upon reaching, Kyebi, the police arrested them and after interrogation they were sent to the Dansoman Police Station in Accra.
The court, presided over by Justice Senyo Dzamefe, found the accused persons guilty of the charges and sentenced them accordingly.