A carpenter was on Monday jailed 15 years by an Accra Circuit Court, for robbing a driver and a driver’s mate of an unspecified amount of money.

Mohammed Seidu, a resident at Kanda, stabbed Ebenezer Lartey (driver’s mate) in the stomach and right thigh at about 9pm some day in December last year at the Shangri-La bus stop, and took all the money the mate had collected that day.

When asked by the judge, Mr. Aboagye Tandoh, whether he had something to say before his fate could be decided, Seidu said: “I did not commit the crime, but if the court says I am guilty, then I only plead for mitigation”.

The court viewed Seidu’s conduct reprehensible and, therefore, deserved a deterrent sentence.

The facts were that Seidu and a friend boarded the bus bound for Adenta, at the 37 Water Works bus stop.

When the vehicle got to the Shangri-La bus stop, the two persons asked the driver, Daniel Osei Akoto, to stop for them to alight.

No sooner had the driver acceded to their request than Seidu and his accomplice attack the driver’s mate, Ebenezer Lartey, stab him in the stomach and thigh with a knife and collect the money being the day’s sales from him and fled.

The driver’s mate late spotted Seidu at the Tema Community One lorry station and caused his arrest.