TETTEH SAMADZI vs. THE REPUBLIC

The appellant was convicted by the High Court, Accra, on robbery charges arising out of two dawn robberies at Pokuase and Ayawaso on 6 March 2009 and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with hard labour. The prosecution case rested mainly on visual identification by the victims. The appellant, a police officer, denied involvement and raised an alibi, asserting that he left home around 3.30 a.m. for his building site at Pokuase, later assisted taxi drivers to pass roadblocks mounted at Ayawaso after a robbery, and was then mistaken for one of the robbers because he drove a black VW saloon car similar to the one allegedly used by the robbers. He called several witnesses, including his wife, co-tenants, and a taxi-rank bookman, to support his account. The Supreme Court held that the evidence, especially on identification and alibi, left a reasonable doubt as to his guilt. Portions in judgment pointing to this: “The conviction complained about in this appeal was in respect of two robberies at Pokuase and Ayawaso… at dawn of 6th March, 2009”; “The ground for the convictions was that the accused persons were identified by the victims of the robberies…”; “On the other hand, the case of the appellant was that he is a policeman… On the fateful, 6/3/2009 he woke up by 3.30am…”; “The appellant’s defence was simply that he was not at Ayawaso between 1.30am and 2.00am… nor at Pokuase at 3.30am… so it was a case of mistaken identification.”