A Koforidua Circuit Court has sentenced Corporal Seidu Yahaya Gasty, the prime suspect in the Akuse Okwenya fuel station robbery incident to 20 years imprisonment.
In March 2018, the suspect, Corporal Seidu Yahaya Gasty who was an officer with the Akuse Police together with Seth Kponyo Dodzi, a security officer and five others, attacked and robbed a fuel station of GHC 37,851 at Okwenya in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.
They also inflicted severe machete wounds on security guards at the station which led to them being hospitalized for several weeks.
Eastern Regional Police Crime Officer who led the investigations, Superintendent David Gyabah told Citi News after the ruling on Thursday that the punishment is to serve as a deterrent to other officers.
“We have to do our job no matter how it is. The law has to carry its course so we pursued our investigations within the law. We had to work and pursue this case so people will not say we are trying to protect our own. I can say is that we set out to do our jobs and we believe we have done our job as expected. Our men and everybody should be law-abiding to regulate our conduct.”
The police officer and the security officer were charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, robbery and attempting to commit murder.