The Agona Swedru Circuit Court has jailed two armed robbers 50 years each in hard labour for robbing a taxi driver of his cab and murdered him later.

Emmanuel Adjei, age 24, bus conductor and Kofi Gyan 20 years, unemployed received 50 years each on two counts of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery.

The sentences will run concurrently.

They pleaded guilty and the Court presided over by Ms Abigail Anima Asare, convicted them on their own pleads.

The two accused persons would after their sentences face murder charges at a Higher Court.

Prosecuting, Detective Police Officer, Abudulai Mohamed said the complainant in the case was Mr John Ashiley at Jei Krodua, near Kasoa.

He said Mr Ashiley on May 27, 2014 reported of his missing taxi cab and its driver, Mr Odartey Lamptey, to the Kasoa Millennium City Police Station.

Detective Police Officer said on 28th May 2014, police at Millennium City station got information that Lamptey has been found dead in the bush at Adadi, near Kasoa.

He said the Police rushed to the scene and saw the body lying in the bush with marks on his neck with blood oozing from the nose, mouth and ears.

According to the prosecution, the body was later identified by the owner of the taxi cab as his driver.

He said the Police at Kasoa intensified their investigations into the matter and upon tip- off heard that Adjei was using the deceased’s taxi cab at Suame in Kumasi in Ashanti Region.

The prosecution told the court that on 18 September, 2014 the Police went to Kumasi and arrested the first accused Adjei and upon interrogations confessed that they committed the offence.

He said it came out from the police investigation that the two accused person who hailed from Agona Odoben, in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa district hired the taxi on May 27, 2014 at Kasoa for errand at the area but murdered the driver near Adadi and escaped with the car.

Detective Police Officer told the court that the second accused Kofi Gyan was arrested at his hide out at Tabita , near Akim Akroso in the Eastern Region.

He said a Post Mortem examination by Dr Simon Aporo at the Pathology Department of the Korle –Bu Teaching Hospital revealed that the deceased was strangulated to death as one consistent with hanging.