SHIPPING MAGNATE'S SON CONVICTED

AFTER nine months in custody, Haleem Banda, a businessman was today sentenced to one years’ imprisonment and a fine of GH¢6,000 for threat of death and unlawful possession of arms and ammunition.
The Accra Fast Track High Court said the sentence is to take retrospective effect from June 12, 2007, when the 32-year-old managing director of a company in Tema and son of Alhaji Asuma Banda, the shipping magnate was arrested.
The effect of the sentence is that if Banda is able to pay the fine, he would walk a free man, according to the prison calender.
The court convicted him on the two counts of possession of arms and ammunition and fined him 500 penalty units (GH¢12 per penalty unit) to run concurrently.
Banda was arrested for a nightclub brawl and faced two counts of threat of death and another two counts of possession of arms and ammunition without authority.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges but after the trial the court found him guilty on three of the counts and accordingly convicted him.
He was, however, acquitted and discharged on one count of threat of death.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice B.T. Aryeetey, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge took into consideration the fact that Banda was not known to the law and offered him the opportunity to start his life afresh.
According to the prosecution, on June 10, 2007 at about 1:30 a.m., the accused person stormed the Cinderella Nightclub in Cantonments and threatened, Kofi Okyere Darko (KOD), a broadcaster, and Kiki Banson, a businessman, with death.
The suspect was said to have given KOD a heavy blow which sent him sprawling and threatened to kill him if he tried to get up.
On June 12, 2007, Banda was said to have in his possession four live pistol ammunition without authority while he also had in his possession a pump action gun with an expired licence.
Regarding the first count of threat of death relating to KOD, the court held that the prosecution was able to prove the ingredients in the particulars and the impression was that other people heard the gunshots fired by Banda while he was also seen with the pistol, which was later confiscated by the police.
That evidence, the court said, was at variance with what Banda said; that the pistol had been confiscated by the police about seven years earlier.
The court said that the evidence adduced by the prosecution in respect of the second count of threat of death on Mr Banson did not match the particulars of that offence and was not credible enough.
It said the evidence relating to both counts of possession indicated that Banda possessed the arms and ammunition which had an expired permit.
Counsel for the convict, Mr Addo Atuah prayed the court to be lenient with his client because there was no evidence of any physical injury to any person in respect of the count of threat of death while he was also a first offender and a young man who had already spent nine months in custody.