Accra April 15, GNA - A Thirty-five year old driver who robbed his ex-wife with others at gunpoint and inserted nails and screws into her private part in Kumasi was on Friday sentenced to 30 years imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra Fast Track High Court.

Albert Adu-Boateng appeared with Kofi Tabi, a trader and accomplice, who was also sentenced to 30 years imprisonment with hard labour. They have 30 days to appeal.

A seven-member Jury unanimously returned a verdict of guilty on them. Adu-Boateng and Tabi who were charged with conspiracy, robbery and causing unlawful harm with an offensive weapon earlier pleaded not guilty.

Peter Okine an accomplice is on the run.

When Adu-Boateng and Tabi were asked what they had to say before sentences were passed, they said: "we leave everything to God, we don't know anything about the case, the truth shall surely come out." Their counsels however, pleaded for leniency, saying, they were first offenders.

Summing up, the court, presided over Ms Justice Magarette Insiadoo noted that the prosecution had been able to establish a case against the convicts.

The convicts in their defence denied the charges stating that they did not know each other but only met at the police station. Though the convicts claimed the case was fabricated, the court withheld it, based on the evidence of the four-year-old son of Adu-Boateng, who was said to have been calling his father during the act at about 0200 hrs.

"If the case was fabricated how can a woman who had two children with a man tell such a story against her former husband," the court asked. The case of prosecution was that the complainant was Ms Doris Amponsah a.k.a. Maame Sika who lived at Gyinase in Kumasi.

The prosecutor said Maame Sika was married to Adu-Boateng whom she had two children but the relationship broke down in August 2001. Tabi also lived next door to the house of Maame Sika and her grandmother, adding that the two houses shared a boundary wall. On February 10, 2002 at about 0200 hrs, Maame Sika who was sleeping with her children was awakened by the convicts when there was a power outage in the area.

Prosecution said one of them tapped her legs and when she woke up, Tabi pointed out a gun at her. They tied Maame Sika up and ransacked her wardrobe.

The prosecutor said the accused persons, using an iron rod pushed screws and nails into her private part. Maame Sika fell unconscious when they also poured sulphuric acid into her month.

Prosecution said Maame Sika was rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where she was operated upon to remove the nails and screw. Maame Sika cannot however, urinate but does so with the use of a medical instrument.