We cannot allow criminals to destroy Ghana’s international relations – Judge
The trial judge in the Canadian Girls’ kidnapping case has issued a strong warning to persons who may want to indulge in vices that destroy the image of the country.
In a two-hour ruling delivered on Tuesday, December 20, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo said it would be wrong to allow such nation wreckers to destroy Ghana’s relations with its international partners.
Her message was directed at the four criminals who had been hauled before the court for kidnapping two Canadian girls in Kumasi in June 2019.
Sampson Agharlor, Elvis Ojiyorwe, Jeff Omarsar and Yusif Yakubu – were on trial for conspiracy charges to kidnap and kidnap.
They were each sentenced to serve nine years for the charge of conspiracy and 10 years for kidnapping.
The sentence is to run concurrently, meaning they will each serve the highest which is 10 years but a combined 40 years for all.
According to the judge, kidnapping is one of the serious well-known crimes to most individuals, businesses and states, as it has wreaked havoc on potential tourist prospects and investor confidence.
Justice Osei Marfo believes no form of punishment meted out to them can equate to the emotional stress the family of the victims had to go through.
According to her, the current maximum punishment of 10 years for kidnapping is not deterrent enough, and Ghana should learn from other countries that have strengthened their laws.
The court urged the state to undertake law reforms to ensure that harsher punishments are imposed to deal with issues of kidnapping.
The Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, welcomed the call and said a committee had been constituted to review some of the laws.
Background
The four were arrested for their various roles in kidnapping Miss Lauren Patricia Catherine Tiley and Miss Bailey Jordan Chilley.
The two University of New Brunswick students were abducted on June 4, 2019, while volunteering for a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Kumasi.
They were rescued that same month, which led to the arrest of the suspects.
According to a news release from the Ghana Police Service, the two were abducted at the Kumasi Royal Golf Club at about 8:25 pm.
Medical reports confirmed the girls were returned physically unhurt.
Facts of the case
The prosecution said the first accused person Aghalor who had been in Ghana for some time became a friend of Yakubu in March 2019.
In the course of their friendship, the first accused brought up the idea of kidnapping as a lucrative venture, an idea later accepted by Yakubu.
Yakubu is said to have agreed to assist Aghalor in the kidnapping and even helped procure a pistol for the task ahead.
To help with the plan, Agharlor went to Nigeria in May 2019 and recruited the two other accused persons — Elvis Ojiyorwe and Jeff Omarsar.
The three Nigerians, upon their arrival in Ghana, resided at Ashaiman for some time before they went to Kumasi to meet Yakubu.
When they got to Kumasi, the first accused gave some money to Yakubu to hire a car, an apartment, and buy pistols and other items to enable them to put their plan in motion.
The prosecution said on June 4, 2019, the accused persons who were in a car, accosted the two Canadian girls, who had boarded an Uber taxi at their hostel at Nhyiaeso, a suburb of Kumasi.
The four accused persons are said to have assaulted and forced the girls into their vehicle amid shooting.
They then sped off with their victims to their hideout, which was an uncompleted building at Kenyasi Krobo, another suburb of Kumasi.
After successfully executing their plan, the first accused who is the mastermind of the plot contacted the families of the kidnapped girls and demanded $800,000.
Luck, however, run out when a National Security team, led by Colonel Micheal Opoku, acting on intelligence, arrested Yakubu on June 11, 2019.
The team now proceeded to arrest Aghalor, Ojiyorwe and Omarsar at their hideout at Kenyasi Krobo and rescued the two girls.
“During the rescue mission, Ojiyorwe and Omarsar threatened to kill the victims if the security agents dared them. They exchanged fire with the security agents until they were overpowered and arrested,” the prosecution added.
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