The four final year students of the Adisadel College facing provisional charges of unlawful entry and stealing 82 packets of 'thunder shot' cartridges, from the Central Regional Police Armoury were on Friday granted five million cedis bail each by a circuit court at Cape Coast.

They were Stephen Atsu Kudoto, Kwaw Afebi-Yanney, Donald Abili and Selikem Ahiadrzo, whose plea have not been taken and are to reappear on Tuesday August 28.

The court presided over by Mr Tom Bentil, which was packed to capacity with some people standing outside and craning to catch a glimpse of the students, directed that their parents should personally sign their bail bonds.

The court in addition ordered the boys to report to their Senior House Master at 07:00 hours and 18:00 hours daily until after their final examinations on August 24, after which they are to report to the Regional CID office on August 25.

Pleading for bail, Mr George Carson, a stand-in counsel for Afebi-Yanney and Abili, urged Mr Bentil to grant bail to his clients to enable them to write their final examinations, which begin on Tuesday July 17.

He expressed concern about the fact that the students were already being subjected to prejudices and undue publicity "telling the world that my clients are guilty although it has not been proven by the court".

The case of the Prosecution was that a fifth student of the college John Aboagye-Gyimah, now at large, and Kudoto broke into the Armoury of the Central Regional Police and stole the cartridges on the night of June 23.

It said the two then handed them over to Afebi-Yanney and Abili and the four travelled to Sunyani in a bid to find a prospective buyer and lodged at the Providence Hotel.

The Sunyani Police had a tip off and went to the hotel but Aboagye-Gyimah and Ahiadzro managed to escape while Abili and Afebi-Yanney were arrested and a search in their room led to the discovery of the cartridges and 350,000 cedis.

A wireless message was then sent to the Police in Cape Coast who went over to fetch the two boys who during interrogation mentioned the three others as their accomplices.