The Accra Circuit Court Eight has sentenced a trader who caused harm to a “Good Samaritan” to six months in hard labour. Samuel Lawson was rendered unconscious after Isaka Adamu, 21, struck him in the head with a stick and prevented him from enacting his own brand of justice on a thief. When Adamu was brought before the court on Monday, he only accepted the crime, and he was given the jail sentence.
The complainant, Mr. Lawson, worked as a security guard for UCS Security Company in Dzorwulu, according to Police Inspector Wisdom Alorwu, while the convict, Adamu, was an Ivorian trader who lived near Abossey Okai Central Mosque. He claimed that on January 21, 2023, at around 04:10, the complainant saw Adamu pursuing a young man with a stick approaching his duty station while he was on duty at Omini Bank, Abossey Okai. According to Inspector Alorwu, Adamu claimed to have stolen the complainant’s iron rod when the complainant asked him why he was pursuing him. However, the complainant claimed to have seen nothing in Adamu’s hand.
When the suspected thief rushed into a group of people for salvage and left, the complainant tried to tell Adam to stop chasing after him but he did not listen, the court heard. The accused, according to the prosecution, grew enraged by the complainant’s behavior and obstruction of him and, as a result, without any provocation struck the complainant over the head with the stick in his hand before fleeing. According to him, the complainant passed out and was taken to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for care.
According to Inspector Alorwu, a security officer on duty nearby who saw the occurrence gave the criminal a chase, caught him, and then turned him over to the Police for further investigation. He claimed that when being investigated, Adamu accepted the wrongdoing but maintained he did not mean to smack the complainant over the head. According to the prosecution, the defendant was charged with the crime following extensive investigations.