SOLOMON ADJOLOLO, a fetish priest at Amanhyia, near Suhum in the Eastern Region who allegedly used his car to cause the death of two persons and injured one other at Addo-Nkwanta in the region, has been jailed four years by the Koforidua Circuit Court ‘B’.
The court also entered other consequential order, including payment of GH¢18,000 to each of the injured accident victims as medical expense and also a fine of GH¢1,800 or in default, he would serve eight months additional sentence.
The convict pleaded guilty to 10 charges leveled against him by the prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Dickson Donkor, and was convicted on his own plea.
The families of the victims on October 12, 2017, interrupted court proceedings at the Suhum circuit court after the judge had granted bail to the convict, alleged to be notorious for hit-and-run accidents.
The Attorney General’s Office in the Eastern Region took over the prosecution and filed a nolle prosequi at the Suhum and the Asamankese circuit courts where the convict and his alleged accomplices were standing trial.
Both were rearrested and put before the Circuit Court ‘B’ in Koforidua, presided over by Janet Animah Marfo.
The facts of the case as presented by the prosecutor are that, on October 4, 2017, at about 9:30 pm, Solomon Adjololo was driving an unregistered Toyota Camry – without a plate affixed to it – from Koforidua direction towards Suhum.
Upon reaching Addo Nkwanta – a community near Nankese along the road – he alleged that he was blinded by the high light from an on-coming vehicle, causing him to lose control of the steering wheel and veered off the road. He reportedly crashed into a bamboo shed being occupied by a food vendor and others.
The prosecutor maintained that the car crushed to death one Kwame Asare, a nine-year-old Class 1 pupil of Herman Preparatory School, while Emmanuel Manteaw Kankam, a 28-year-old Level 200 student of the University of Education Winneba and a 26-year-old electrical engineer, Kwasi Awuah, sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the Suhum Government Hospital. Manteaw Kankam died on arrival while Kwasi Awuah survived.
The convict bolted after the incident when he sensed danger and went into hiding and on October 5, 2017, the convict sent one Kwabena Daniel Adekeke to present himself as the one who was driving the car. Adekeke presented himself as such to the Regional CID office in Koforidua. However, when Adekeke was dragged to court at Asamankese and charged, he admitted that Solomon Ajololo asked him to present himself as the driver because he (Ajololo) didn’t have a licence.
On October 10, 2017, Solomon Adjolo alias Rasta, in the company of his lawyer, reported himself to the police. In court, Daniel Kwabena Adekeke pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit crime and deceiving a public officer; but Solomon Adjololo pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit crime to wit: deceiving a public officer, and was convicted on his own plea to a fine of GH¢1,200.00 or in default, serve six months in prison with hard labour.
Solomon Adjololo later changed his plea of not guilty to guilty in the adjourned case. He was therefore convicted on his own plea and has begun his prison sentence.
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