By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday March 10, 2010
A 22 year old man who was jailed 65 years in hard labour for robbery because his name is Spider wants an immediate release from the Nsawam Maximum Security.
This is because the original Spider (John Kofi Fiagbedzi), regarded as a notorious armed robber by the police was found and killed on March 1.
The convict, Kingsley Amankwaa, footballer, together with Solomon Dodoo, 23, known as Alhaji, a barber and Eric Cobbina, 21, also known as Adolf Hitler were on February 27, 2009 jailed 65 years each in hard labour by an Accra Fast track High Court for robbery.
They were said to have shot a retired soldier in the thigh after robbing his son of GH¢1,540 and some personal effects including mobile phones.
Two other accomplices, whose names were only given as Opeele and Tilapia, who went into hiding after the robbery were also arrested later by the police and Opeele released while Tilapia was later given 65 years by the same court.
In an exclusive interview with the father of convict Spider (Kingsley) in Accra yesterday, Mr. Harris Amankwaa Donkor, 53, told “the police framed up the charges on my son to get him convicted by the Fast Track Court because his name is Spider.”
“The police used my son as a sacrifice in order to make the public know that they were dealing with the armed robbery situation. They had published Spiders’ particulars as being on their wanted list and when my son was arrested they intentionally got the court and the public to believe that he was the notorious armed robber they were always looking for all these years”.
Asked how his son was arrested, Mr. Amankwaa said “my son bought a mobile phone from one Ebo at Odorkor Lorry Station on Saturday September 13, 2008 but later sold it to another man called Solomon Dodoo in order to raise money to buy football boots for an impending justifier.”
He said Solomon also sold the phone to one Kwaku Donkor but police had held that the phone was part of the personal effects stolen by the robbers at the residence of the retired soldier who was shot in the process.
Mr. Amankwaa said Solomon was the first to be arrested, followed by Cobbina before his son was picked four days later, adding “from October 19, 2008 to October 22, 2008, the police kept coming to our house at the Odorkor Cluster of Schools area but never arrested my son. “
“Do you think if my son was the real Spider they were looking for, would he have stayed there for him to be arrested. Do you also think if my son had indeed robbed the people the police is claiming would he have used the phone himself?” he queried.
He alleged that when all the convicts were picked, the police asked them to pay GH¢1000 each for them to be set free but the parents could not raise such an amount.
He said it was a man called Ofori, an exhaust pipe repairer at Odorkor who was used by the police to collect the money on their behalf, adding “Ofori kept coming to me for the money but things were difficult so I could not pay it.”
He said on the day of the arrest (October 22) “the police stormed our house shouting ‘you are Spider. You live with your girlfriend at Race Course. We have been looking for you for many years.’”
“In the process they heckled my wife and ransacked our room but found nothing incriminating before taking him away to the Odorkor Police Station.
“The following morning, at about 11 am the police brought him back to our house claiming to do additional search and everybody who knew my son broke down in tears because barely 12 hours after being taken away he had been brutally tortured beyond recognition. It was like a funeral in our area”.
“One Sergeant Bawa who led the team to our house ordered my wife to get my son a new shirt and throw the T. Shirt he wore into the dustbin because it was soaked with blood as a result of the inhumane treatment meted out to him. I took the T Shirt as evidence and presented it during the trial but the judge will have none of these because the police knew what they were doing”
“My son told me that the police persistently tortured him to the extent that he had to admit he was a robber to save his life. He told me he was handcuffed and whipped with naked wire and it took the court 60 days to find out what had happened to my son in police cell”.
Mr. Amankwaa said at a point the police framed up a story that his son knew one robber called Kwabena Yeboah alias Nigger who was arrested and published in the Daily Graphic of November 3, 2009 in order to get him to jail.
Asked how his son came by the name Spider, Mr. Donkor said “he was able to tell the court about this but the judge did not consider it.”
He said people in the area called his son Spider because he played like a former national footballer called David Amoako who played for the Black Satellites and had the nickname Spider and this was exactly what he had told both the police and court.
He said he once warned him about the name and was making efforts to get him to change it before the unfortunate incident occurred.
“I am using your medium to appeal to the President, Chief Justice and the IGP to look into this matter in the name of God. He is my only child. He completed EMIT Electronic Institute. I cannot sit down for such an injustice to go on. I will fight to clear his innocence”.
Also see : www.dailyguideghana.com
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