No end for Ataa Ayi

December 11, 2010 (Front Page)

GHANA’S most notorious armed robber, Raymond Aryee Aryeetey, alias Ataa Ayi, made another appearance in court yesterday to receive a 40-year jail sentence in addition to the 70-year jail term he is already serving for robbery.
A pale figure of how he looked four years ago, Ataa Ayi, 39, was found guilty on charges of conspiracy and robbery to serve the 40-year sentence with hard labour with effect from the day he completes his 70-year jail term.
He was sentenced with six others to a total of 260 years’ imprisonment for robbing a businesswoman of $65,000 and GH¢4,500 in February 2003.
The trial judge, Mr Justice P. Baffoe-Bonnie, a Supreme Court judge, had imposed the 70-year jail term on Ataa Ayi and his accomplices in 2006, after he had been nabbed in February 2005 for committing a string of robberies.
Four of his accomplices, namely, Raymond Ameh, Frederick Lamptey Annan, alias Nuumo, Kwabla Agbodogah, alias Rojay, and Samuel Kwaku Annan, alias Sammy Tugah, were also sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment each.
Annan, Agbodogah and Ameh are already serving 69 years’ imprisonment each.
The court, however, sentenced two other accomplices, Nana Osei Razak and Nana Yaw Owusu, who confessed in March and July 2005, respectively, to conspiring with Ataa Ayi and the rest of the convicts to commit the robbery, to 30 years’ imprisonment.
The trial suffered a setback when Ataa Ayi, Owusu, Annan, Agbodogah and Tugah denied confessing to committing the crimes to the police. A mini trial was held in the process.
The prosecution called witnesses following the denial by the convicts that they had confessed to any wrongdoing to the police, with the explanation that they had been made to admit their caution statements under extreme duress, intimidation and threats of harm.
After the back-and-forth movements, the court gave its judgement in the presence of the prosecutor of the case, Mr Asiamah Sampong. Defence lawyers were absent.
Ataa Ayi and the other convicts who are in their 30s looked indifferent, as if to say, “We are condemned and have nothing to lose.”
Nuumo was assisted by prison guards to walk because sources said he had suffered a stroke in prison.
In March 2006, there had been a twist in the case when Razak confessed to committing the offence with the other convicts and said he had received $5,000 and GH¢200 after the robbery.
Another accomplice, Nana Yaw Owusu, had also confessed on July 4, 2005 to having committed the offence but explained that those he had committed the offence with were not those he was standing trial with.
Owusu had informed the court that the Ataa Ayi he had committed the offence with was not the Ataa Ayi in the dock along with him.
They were, therefore, convicted on the charges of conspiracy and robbery and their sentences deferred till yesterday.
The court, after the full trial, was of the view that the prosecution had proved the guilt of the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced them accordingly.
Ataa Ayi and the three others — Samuel Kweku Annan, Agbodogah and Ameh — had, on February 27, 2006, been sentenced to a total of 277 years’ imprisonment with hard labour by the same court.
They had been convicted on two counts of conspiracy and robbing Prism Forex Bureau at Dzorwulu of GH¢7,000 at gunpoint on October 14, 2003.
In September 2008, Ataa Ayi and three others, namely, Sarfo Sarpong, Michael Tagoe and Nana Osei Razak, had been found guilty of raiding the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) at gunpoint on May 19, 2004 and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment each.