By Priscilla Nimako
Tema, July 10, GNA – The Tema Circuit Court B has sentenced three businessmen, who conspired to commit a crime and stealing to 10 years imprisonment each with hard labour.
The court presided over by Ms. Bertha Aniagyei sentenced Ben Ograh, Carl Kumodzi, and Solomon Nana Yaw Amoako, based on their guilty plea to 10 years on both counts to run concurrently.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mrs. Stella Odame, prosecuting, said Complainant Beatrice Ampofo is a shipper working at CMA CGM Ghana, a shipping Company located at Meridian Area in Tema.
Ben Ograh, 35, is a businessman and a Forklift Operator residing at Adenta in Accra.
ASP Odame said Carl Kumodzi, aged 27 years old, is a clearing Agent staying in Oyibi, and Solomon Nana Yaw Amoako, 35 years old, is an electrician residing in Nungua. Kumodzi and Amoako are friends.
He recounted that on January 23, 2019, Kumodzi called John Mensah a witness in the case and told him that his client needed containers to export cashew nuts to Shanghai, China.
ASP said on February 4, 2019, Mensah contacted CMA CGM Ghana, a shipping Company based in Tema, and collected 14 containers from the complainant.
Mensah loaded all the containers on trucks and deposited them in a warehouse at Spintex for the loading of cashew nuts for export.
The prosecution said Ograh and Kumodzi on receipt of the containers, called Amoako, whom they planned with, and they all reloaded the 14 containers on trucks and deposited them in a warehouse at Spintex for the loading of cashew nuts for export.
The prosecution said Ograh and Kumodzi, on receipt of the containers, called Amoako, whom they planned with, and they all reloaded the 14 containers on different trucks.
The Prosecution said they discharged the containers at Adenta, Madina, and Pantang Hospital Area, all suburbs of Accra, and sold them without loading any cashew nuts for export, as claimed by the accused persons, and thereafter went into hiding.
On March 23, 2019, a complaint was lodged at the Tema Regional Criminal Investigation Department. During the investigation, Ograh, Kumodzi, and Amoako were arrested at their hideouts at Adenta, Oyibi, and Community 5 in Tema.
ASP Odame said they led Police to Abokobi, Ashaiman, Adenta, Community 11, and Afienya, where five stolen containers were retrieved. Further investigation revealed that there was no warehouse stocked with cashew nuts at Spintex.
The Prosecution said Ograh, who claimed to be the exporter of cashew nuts, did not deal in cashew at all, but only used the means to dishonestly appropriate the containers; the cost of one container is Ghc9,918.00, and the total value of the fourteen containers is Ghc138,843.69.
The value of the nine containers yet to be recovered is GHC 89,258.00. Investigations are ongoing to get their accomplices, Yaw and KK, who are on the run, arrested.
Meanwhile Ogarh, Kumodzi, and Amoako are assisting the police in recovering the remaining nine containers from Kumasi and other places in Ghana.
GNA