FREDERICK AKWASI ASAMOAH v. THE REPUBLIC

BAFFOE-BONNIE JSC:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal dated 14th November, 2018. The Appellant was tried by the Circuit Court, Dunkwa-on-offin on three counts of conspiracy, three counts of robbery and one count of possession of firearm without permit. According to the prosecution the Appellant together with the other accused persons (at large) on the 21st day of December, 2014 at about 5:30pm, on the 15th day of January 2015 at about 5:30pm, on the 5th day of February, 2015 at about 5:30 pm did conspire and did commit the offence of robbery with the Appellant also in the possession of a firearm without permit.

The case of the prosecution during the trial was that sometime in December 2014, mining sites at Adeade near Diaso experienced series of armed robberies. On the 21st day of December 2014, the police received a complaint that at about 5:30 pm that day, three (3) armed robbers with two AK 47 assault rifles and a pump action gun, attacked their workers after the close of work and robbed them of their black concentrate containing gold. Subsequently, on 15th January, 2015, there was another report of an armed robbery attack by the same complainant at his mining site in Adeade and a police team was dispatched to the area. On reaching one of the mining sites, the armed robbers fired at the policemen which caused two policemen to sustain injuries. The two policemen were then rushed to the hospital for treatment and were on admission for a couple of weeks. After shooting the two policemen, the armed robbers proceeded to one other mining site, shot one Chinese man in the leg and thereafter robbed them of their mobile phones and black concentrate containing gold. Then again on 5th February 2015, the police received a distress call that there had been an attack by armed robbers wielding two AK 47 assault rifles and a pump action gun who blocked a section of the road at the outskirts of Adeade and took away their three basins of black concentrate containing gold. In that encounter, the armed robbers compelled three of the victims to carry the black concentrate containing gold to a safe place in the forest and ordered them to extract the gold for them. Whilst the victims were with the robbers, the robbers stated that they were the same people who shot at the police in the previous attack and that they intended to kill them. On 8th March, 2015, the armed robbers attacked another mining site at Maudaso near Diaso. Military personnel were a