A trader and a mechanic each got two years after admitting they took a GH16,000 motorbike belonging to the national health insurance office.
Two young men from Effiduase in the Ashanti Region have each been jailed for two years for stealing a motorcycle belonging to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the state-run health insurance programme that helps Ghanaians pay for basic medical care.
The Nsuta Circuit Court, in the Sekyere Central District, passed the sentence on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. His Honour Simon Nketiah Gagah presided.
The convicts are Oppong Stephen, 25, a trader also known as Gye Nyame, and Samuel Owusu Antwi, 20, a motor mechanic known as C-Jay. Both live at Effiduase. They pleaded guilty to stealing.
How the bike went missing
Inspector Nicholas Amoako, who prosecuted the case, told the court that the complainant is Williams Kwarteng Asare, an accounts officer at the NHIS office at Effiduase.
On August 29, 2026, after the close of work, Asare rode an unregistered Royal motorcycle belonging to the scheme to his home. He parked it in front of the house, near the police barrier at Effiduase, and went to bed.
By the next morning the machine, valued at GH16,000, was gone. He reported the matter to the Effiduase Police.
Arrests and recovery
The prosecution said police opened investigations and mounted surveillance. That effort led to the arrest of Oppong Stephen, who admitted during questioning that he took the motorcycle.
He named Samuel Owusu Antwi as his accomplice and told investigators the bike had been kept at Antwi’s place. Oppong then led officers to a house at Juaben, where Antwi was arrested and the motorcycle recovered.
The machine was taken to the police station and impounded as evidence.
The court also heard that the two later took investigators back to the complainant’s house and showed how they removed the motorcycle. They confessed in written statements taken in the presence of an independent witness. Those statements formed part of the evidence that supported the conviction after their guilty pleas.
After sentencing, the court directed the prosecution to hand the motorcycle back to the NHIS.
Why it matters
Motorcycles are working tools for district-level public offices in Ghana. NHIS staff use them to move between communities for registration drives, card renewals and monitoring of accredited health facilities. A stolen bike is not only a GH16,000 loss to the public purse; it can slow down service delivery in the district until it is replaced.
For Ghanaians abroad who fund health cover for relatives at home, the case is a small reminder of how thinly resourced district health offices can be, and how quickly one theft can disrupt them.
The case was heard and concluded within about ten days of the offence, a relatively quick turnaround helped by the guilty pleas.
Reported first by Daily Guide Network on 2026-09-10. This article was written for our readers based on that report. Follow the link for the original coverage.
