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Crime & Punishment of Saturday, 29 June 2024

Source: GNA

Two persons to stand trial for April 2023 murder of soldier at Ashaiman

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Samuel Tetteh and Abubakar Sadick have been committed to stand trial at the High Court for the murder of 21-year-old Private Sherif Imoro at Ashaiman, as decided by the TDC Magistrate Court in Tema.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Mrs. Benedicta Antwi, initially discharged all accused persons standing committal trial following an application from the prosecution to withdraw the charge sheet filed in April 2023.

Subsequently, a fresh charge of murder was filed against Tetteh and Sadick.

As a result, Ibrahim Abdul Rakib, Safianu Musah, and Yusif Mohammed were discharged, their names being omitted from the new charge sheet.

The counsel stated that the three discharged individuals were only linked to the phone involved in the case because the two accused of murder allegedly took the phone from the soldier, sold it to one person, who then sold it to another, and so forth.

Lawyer Abdul Fatau Abdallah, counsel for one of the discharged, Ibrahim Abdul Rakib, informed the Ghana News Agency that they were only involved in dishonestly receiving the stolen phone from the slain soldier, as they had purchased it.

However, shortly after their discharge, Rakib and Musah were re-arrested and placed into police custody to be arraigned before the court at a later date, while Mohammed was released due to his minimal connection to the crime.

The facts presented to the court when the accused persons first appeared in 2023 allege that Tetteh and Sadick, at around 1:45 AM on March 4, 2023, attacked the deceased at Taifa Ashaiman in an attempt to rob him of his phone and a backpack.

During the struggle, Tetteh allegedly pulled out a knife, stabbed the deceased in the arm, and fled with the phone, leaving the knife embedded in the victim's arm.

Further investigations revealed that Tetteh and Sadick sold the stolen phone to Rakib, who in turn resold it to others.