A final year student of the Adobewora Community Senior High School at Nyinahini in the Ashanti Region, 19-year-old, Muftaw Fuseini has been jailed for five years for stealing goats.
According to a teacher of the school, Bawa Simon Laari, Fuseini who is also a tricycle rider was only hired by his colleague to transport about five stolen goats unbeknownst to him to a nearby town.
Mr. Laari said when they got to a police barrier, Fuseini told the security personnel on duty that night that he owned the animals at the request of his colleague.
He said both were arrested but Fuseini’s friend was able to pay for his freedom.
Describing Fuseini’s imprisonment as harsh, the teacher says his bright future could be thwarted and suggested that the convict should have rather been rehabilitated than imprisoned.
“He has been denied WASSCE and I think this student could have been rehabilitated and given good advice to fit into society rather than this harsh sentence,” Mr. Laari bemoaned.
The worried teacher approached Crime Check Foundation (CCF) for support for his student.
“5yrs for stealing a goat? Much as he bears responsibility for his actions, having his education truncated because of a goat is painful,” was the reaction of the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF), Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng when he received the news with shock.
CCF has launched a plea for support from the general public to appeal his sentence to get him out of prison to enable him to pursue his dreams.
CCF’s crime prevention advocacy
Aside paying the fines of petty offenders and integrating them into society, Crime Check Foundation (CCF) has introduced programmes including the latest ‘Stay Away From Trouble’ as part of its crime prevention advocacy project.
Through these programmes CCF cautions the general public against acts that could land them in trouble in a bid to curb crime.
The Foundation screens one-on-one interviews with prison inmates bringing to bear acts that landed them in prison and the difficulties they face in custody.
Writer’s Email: rudnankp4@gmail.com
