The Sekondi Magistrate Court in the Western Region on Monday, 14 March 2022, discharged Adolf Eshun, the 1st accused person in the case involving 3 Senior High School students facing trial for setting a Bolt driver ablaze.

The Bompeh Senior High School student was discharged following a recommendation by the Attorney General’s (AG) office.

The first accused who has been on remand since December 2021, together with the two other students, was discharged based on the AG’s advice.

According to the AG, although the 1st accused ordered the Bolt for the two others, he did not take part in the planning and execution of the crime.

Counsel for the 1st accused, Mr Joseph Evans Abeka, told journalists:  “…So, the Attorney General rightly advised that he shouldn’t be prosecuted. He should be discharged, so he has been discharged. If in future the police need him to come and testify, he will come, but for now, he is a free person and can even start school tomorrow.”

The 2nd and 3rd accused are still on remand.

The case has since been adjourned to Monday, 11 April 2022.

Three senior high school students were arrested by the Western Regional Police Command for allegedly setting a Bolt driver ablaze at Bakano in Sekondi on Wednesday, 22 December 2021.

Patrick Baidoo, 18; Joseph Lord Nii Adjei Odiku, 17; and Adolf Eshun, 17, lit Naval officer AB1 Boateng Okyere Boateng on fire so they could rob him, the police said.

The three teenagers, according to the police, confessed to the crime.

They said they were forced to set him alight because he struggled with them over the ignition key of the car as they attempted carjacking him.

The Public Relations Officer of the regional police command, Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, told journalists: “At about 5 pm on December 24, our team from the Regional Intelligence and Operation Unit, based on some intelligence, conducted an operation and arrested three suspects namely Patrick Baidoo, aged 18; Joseph Lord Nii Adjei Odiku, 17; and Adolf Eshun, aged 17 years.”

“All these three sustained burnt wounds from the December 22, 2021 incident ″, she noted.

DSP Adiku added: “Unfortunately, the Bolt driver has passed on”.

He died at the 37 Military Hospital where he was transferred from the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, for treatment.

The suspects, she said, “confessed that they needed money and wanted to rob him of the car” but “when they got to Baka-Ano, and they asked him to hand over the keys, he refused; hence they poured the petrol on him and burnt him”.

The three were later arraigned.