Juaso (Ash), March 26, GNA - The Juaso Circuit Court presided over by Mr S. K. Sarpong Appiah, has sentenced a 28-year-old farmer to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for possessing narcotic drug. Kwame Sasu Hayford pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing narcotic drug without authority.

Police Superintendent Francis Agrippa Oppong, prosecuting, told the court that in October last year, the police while on patrol duty at Banso, spotted Hayford at the Banso Local Authority Primary School. On seeing them, the convict took to his heels leaving behind a black polythene bag.

He said when the bag was searched, it was found to contain dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp and they therefore took the bag and its contents to the station.

On October 27, last year, the police while on another routine patrol again saw Hayford at the same place and this time arrested him. A search conducted in another polythene bag he was carrying revealed dried leaves, which was later confirmed by a police forensic laboratory examination to be cannabis. It weighed 650 grammes.