UPDATE: Farmer jailed 20 years for robbing woman

A farmer was found guilty of robbery by the Asante Bekwai Circuit Court and given a 20-year prison sentence with hard labor.

Michael Nhyira Cobbina, who is 31 years old, stole Mrs. Bernice Yeboah’s cell phone while her children, ages 5 and 10, screamed for help.

Cobbina admitted to the crime when he was brought before the court. Because of this, he was found guilty.
Detective Chief Inspector Eric Twum told the court, which was led by Mr. Mark Tair-ima Diboro, that Cobbina and Mrs. Yeboah were both farmers in the Ashanti Region and lived near each other in Aduabin.

He said that at about 11:45 p.m. on December 1, 2022, Mrs. Yeboah’s front door was banged on, waking up her sleeping children.

Then she saw an adult man with a face mask and a knife standing in front of her. He demanded money and said he would hurt her if she didn’t give it to him.

The prosecution said that when her two children woke up, they saw what was going on and heard the threats. They then started screaming for help, the prosecution said.

But no one heard them because they lived on their cocoa farm, which was 900 meters away from their neighbors in the Aduabin Township.

Detective Chief Inspector Twum said that when Mrs. Yeboah felt helpless, she gave Cobbina her Itel phone, which had GHC2,000 in electronic cash on it.

Cobbina then left with the phone, but he didn’t get away with it because a witness in the case who had bought the phone for Mrs. Yeboah saw the convict’s wife using the same handset and quickly told the person who had lost the phone.

Chief Inspector Twum said that Mrs. Yeboah told the Feyiase Police Station about the problem on December 8, 2022.
Cobbina was then arrested, and his wife’s Itel cell phone was taken from her. Cobbina’s wife had put her sim card in the phone, and the police found pictures of the convict and his wife in the device.

Cobbina told police that he bought the phone for his wife from someone in Adum, but an investigation later showed that he was the one who stole from Mrs. Yeboah.

He took the police to his room and gave them all the evidence. He was then charged and taken to court.

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