Kumasi, Feb. 17, GNA - A circuit court in Kumasi, has sentenced a 28 year-old Burkinabe, a member of highway robbery gang, to 60 years imprisonment with hard labour. Amadu Sule and nine other gang members, on the run, armed with pump action guns, locally manufactured pistols and machetes blocked the Kumasi-Accra highway at Kubease and assaulted and robbed travelers of their monies and personal belongings.

The convict pleaded not guilty to the charge of robbery. Mr. Richmond Osei-Hwere, an Assistant State Attorney, told the court presided over by Mr. Justice Emmanuel Amo-Yartey that the incident happened at about 0400 hours on Saturday, January 30. He said Sule and the other gang members fired gun shots sporadically into the air as they stopped vehicles to and from Accra end of the highway, seized money, cell phones and other valuables from travelers. Prosecution said two police officers escorting a Kumasi-bound State Transport Corporation bus from Aflao engaged the robbers in a shoot-out. Mr Osei-Hwere said unable to stand the "firepower" of the Policemen, the robbers melted into the nearby bush with their booty but Sule, who run out of luck, was grabbed.

Prosecution said one of the cell phones that were retrieved from Sule during a search, was identified by a victim of the robbery attack. Mr Osei-Hwere said the convict who denied the offence and insisted he was a passenger traveling to Accra enroute to Gabon could not trace where he either bought a ticket or joined a bus.