A 64-year-old man, Isaac Odoom has been jailed for breaking into Blacks Stars player, John Paintsil’s house to sleep.
According to Mr. Odoom, he followed a colleague with whom they burn charcoal at Ajumako Abease in the Central Region.
The Ajumako Magistrate Court found him guilty of stealing and sentenced him to twelve months imprisonment.
“We manage to go into the house through the window. We only went inside to sleep because it was late. We did not steal anything from the player’s house,” the feeble-looking man claimed.
This was after they had traveled to the small town to burn some charcoal but did not have a place to lay their head when night came.
“After we left, I was told by a friend that police were looking for me for burgling John Paintsil’s house. They had already arrested the other person I went into the house with,” he told crimecheckghana.org.
Buttressing his claim of being innocently jailed, Mr. Oddom indicated that the house was empty. “The player had sacked everybody from the house. Nobody lived in there so it was empty. There was nothing to pick from the house so we were innocently charged with theft,’ he said.
Mr. Odoom was fined One Thousand Four Hundred Ghana cedis, which he could not afford. He was then sentenced to eight months imprisonment to offset the debt.
During its routine visits to prisons across the country under its Petty Offenders project, Crime Check Foundation (CCF) made a stop at the Winneba Local Prison where Mr. Odoom was serving his sentence.
After listening to his narration, CCF paid his fine for his release. A Sweden-based Ghanaian footballer, Emmanuel Boateng contributed to securing the convict’s release.
Petty Offenders project
Crime Check Foundation has helped release hundreds of prison inmates through its fine-paying scheme.
By Rudolph Nandi
