2017: 9 cops arrested for robberies

The Ghana Police Service arrested 241 suspected robbers nationwide in 2017 as against 232 the previous year, with nine of the suspects being their own.

This was contained in the Annual Crime Statistics report for 2017 released by the Ghana Police Service.

A total of 1,772 robbery cases were recorded at the end of the year 2017 across the country as compared to 1,397 cases in the year 2016, the Ghana Police Service has disclosed.

“This shows an increase of 375 robbery cases as compared to that of 2016 representing 26.8%,” the law enforcement agency stated in its Annual Crime Statistics report for 2017.

Statistics indicate that approximately five cases of robbery were recorded daily in the year 2017.

Below are details of the robberies:

- Persons in charge flashy vehicles returning home from work are trailed by criminals to the entrance of their houses where they are attacked with lethal weapons and robbed.

- The criminals lay surveillance on Cashiers of Cocoa buying companies who cash heavy sums of money from the bank to be disbursed to cocoa farmers without Police escort. The suspects then attack them on the way and rob them of the cash.

- The robbers (usually one person) hire a targeted vehicle but having liaised with his counterparts somewhere, requests the driver to stop, usually at obscure areas, where his accomplices are hiding, thereby facilitating a reinforced attack.

-Workers who walk home lonely in the night are attacked on the street and marched to the nearest bank with ATM where the criminals grab the victims’ ATM card and pin code to forcefully withdraw cash from their accounts.

-The armed men sometimes barricade a section of the Highway and rob travelers of their money and other belongings.

-Fuel Filling Stations which work throughout the night are attacked at night by armed men who rob cash from the attendants and the manager.

-The armed men oftentimes having robbed a vehicle, fix fake number plates on it, later trail unsuspecting victims with this vehicle to obscure areas and rob them. This scenario is taking a dramatic turn as, in recent past, the criminals rob their victims just at the entrance to victims’ residences.