A 20-year-old motor rider, Agbovi Harrison and Hlortsi Raphael, 23, an auto mechanic, have been sentenced to 15 years each in hard labour by a Sogakope Circuit court for robbery.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiring to commit robbery and robbery, but the court ruled them guilty after receiving hard proof of the crime.
According to police prosecutor Chief Inspector Seidu Kodua, the defendants were apprehended by a mob on January 23, 2016, at around 1600 hours, in Kpevi, a community near Gornikope, within Akatsi South, after attacking a commercial motor rider on his Sanya motorbike with registration number M22VR 121 at Kpevi.
Chief Inspector Seidu Kodua said one of the suspects hired the services of Edro Tobias, a commercial motor rider from Datsiedu near Ziope, on the day of the incident.
Chief Inspector Kodua said the pillion rider, upon reaching a planned location, attempted to strangle the rider with a rope with support from other accomplices who emerged from the bush.
They succeeded in snatching the motor away from the victim.
However, the prosecution said luck eluded Harrison and Rafael after the bike developed a fault at Avadre junction, which compelled them to push the motorbike into a nearby bush.
Some youths in the area suspected the bike to have been stolen, so they apprehended Harrison and Rafael and handed them over to the police.
They were later arraigned.
The convicts, through their counsel, pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them but were later found guilty after a full trial was conducted.
Another suspect, according to the police, is currently at large while efforts are underway to apprehend him.
