Okada rider jailed 6 months for posing with gun

An ‘okada’ rider has been sentenced to six months in prison with hard labour for posing with a gun to take a picture.

Dawuda Mohammed who lived in a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region said he undertook the act after heavily smoking weed.

“I pointed the gun at my head and took a selfie,” he said.

The motorbike rider told crimecheckghana.org that he was arrested when one of his friends reported him to police in the area after saving the photo from his WhatsApp status.

“I regret posting the picture on my status. My friend saved it and took it to the police station for them to arrest me,” he said.

Dawuda said he is not an armed robber as the police alleged in their prosecution statements.

According to him, he operates a commercial motorbike business, and the gun he posed with belonged to a relative who asked him to keep it for him for a while.

“I was at the station plying my business when the police came to arrest me. They took me home and they found the gun after a search of my room. They said they suspected I was an armed robber which I deny,” he debunked.

However, Dawuda pleaded guilty in court to the charge of armed robbery.

This earned him a six-month prison sentence at the Kumasi Central Prison.

An aunty of his, Alima indicated that Dawuda refused to heed advice and was in the company of bad friends.

She pleaded with Crime Check Foundation (CCF) to help get her nephew a job when he finally leaves prison to get him occupied to discourage him from making friends.

CCF visited the prison to release some inmates including Dawuda who engaged in minor crimes as part of the implementation of its ‘Time With The Prisoner Series’.