The Ho Circuit Court presided over by His Lordship Felix Datsomor, on Friday, 17 July 2020, convicted and sentenced two armed robbers to a total of 46 years in prison with hard labour following their arrest in separate robbery expeditions.

The convicts, 22-year-old Emmanuel Courage Banitsi, who works as a phone repairer in Ho; and Daniel Yeboah, a 19-year-old unemployed, have been involved in various cases of robbery, burglary, stealing and raping their female victims in some instances within the Ho municipality.

They were both convicted on their own pleas in separate charges of robbery.

Emmanuel Courage Banitsi, who was admitted to bail in the same court and was standing trial in a previous robbery incident, was arrested again on 11 July 2020 in another robbery case.

The convicts’ operations, as uncovered by investigations, include breaking into victims’ rooms, robbing victims at a gunpoint, threatening victims with a gun to cooperate and not shout for help; and subsequently robbing victims of their belongings.

In other instances, both robbers coerced their victims to provide their mobile money PINs, which they later used to withdraw and transfer money from the victims’ mobile money accounts.

An accomplice to Emmanuel Banitsi, Bismark Azumah, who is in police custody, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Meanwhile, Prince Adu, the second accomplice, is on the run. 

The Regional Police Command, in the wake of such criminal activities within the municipality, has reviewed its operational strategies to clamp down on the activities of such miscreants.