Ghana: Judgement in Pistol-Stealing Case Involving House Girl March 18

The fate of a 23-year-old lady, Shelter Fiagbo, who is standing trial for allegedly stealing a pistol and ammunitions belonging to a businessman in 2019, will be determined on Thursday, March 18.

She was charged together with Charles Serwonu, 33, now at large. They were both charged with conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.

Until their prosecution, the two were employed by Mr Narinderpal Singh Sethi, the Managing Director (MD) of STEELCO, in Tema, as a house girl and a gardener respectively.

Inspector B. Benneh, the prosecutor, told the court presided over by Mrs Evelyn Asamoah that Ms Fiagbo and Serwonu were residents of Ashaiman but later moved to live with Mr Narinderpal in his house.

While there, the policeman stated, the two lived in separate rooms until Ms Fiagbo joined Serwonu in his room.

According to the prosecutor, the house girl was the only person who had access to Mr Narinderpal’s bedroom because she cleaned it every morning.

He told the court that Mr Narinderpal owns an HK P30 pistol with serial N0: 129-031911 valued at GHc13,550.00, and a number of ammunitions.

Insp. Benneh said the STEELCO MD checked on the pistol every night before he retired to bed.

The policeman said on the night of August 31, 2019, he checked and the pistol was at its usual place before he went to bed.

The court heard that Mr Narinderpal and his wife went out on Saturday, August 3, 2019, at about 2p.m. leaving Ms Fiagbo in the house and returned in two hours time.

The prosecutor said when the couple got home, the accused had run away from the house and that was when Mr Narinderpal did his regular night checks, he realized that the pistol and 15 rounds of nine millimetre ammunitions had been stolen.

Insp. Benneh stated that the MD lodged a report with the Kotobabi police station on September 2 but the suspected house girl and the gardener could not be traced to their Ashaiman homes.

He said Ms Fiabgo was later arrested at Agbozume in the Volta Region but she denied knowledge of the stolen pistol in her statement to the police, after which she was granted bail.

As the police were making efforts to arrest her alleged accomplice, Ms Fiagbo rang that Serwonu, who was at large, had promised to return the pistol to the police.

On September 17, the prosecutor said the first accused rang that she had found the pistol in Serwonu’s room and the police proceeded to retrieve the gun from Ms Fiagbo.

On September 19, police arrested Serwuno at New Ayoma in the Oti Region but he told the police that it was Ms Fiagbo who stole the pistol from the complainant’s bedroom and took it to Ashaiman.

The policeman said Ms Fiabgo, who had earlier denied knowledge of the stolen pistol, gave further statement to the effect that she saw Serwonu with the pistol when they ran away.

This was after her alleged co-conspirator told the police that she was the one who stole the pistol and took it to Ashaiman.