Armed Robbery On the Rise At Nkawkaw

THE NKAWKAW Community Tribunal chaired by Mr. William Boampong has remanded two alleged armed robbers in police custody for robbing an Opel Vectra taxi cab driven by one Sampson Opoku at gun point.

The two, whose plea were not taken, are Emmanuel Lartey, 51, a welder from Osu - Accra and Kwame Darko, 52, an assistant clerk at a warehouse in Tema, who hails from Agona Nyarkrom in the Central Region.

Presenting the facts, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Samuel Asare said on January 25, this year, Lartey, Darko and one Mohammed Alhassan, now at large at about 4:30pm approached Opoku to send them to Kwahu Obo to deliver a message to their dead colleague's relatives.

He said the driver agreed and drove them to Obo.

At Obo, Alhassan and Darko went to a place leaving Lartey in the taxi and returned in about 15 minutes time and asked the driver to send them back to Nkawkaw.

Chief Inspector Asare said when the vehicle reached a portion between Obo and Kwahu Obomeng, which serves as Obo and Obomeng cemeteries, Alhassan ordered the driver to stop.

He said when the driver slowed down to find out why the order, Lartey allegedly held his neck while Alhassan pointed a pistol at his ear and threatened to blow his head off if he refuse to stop.

In the process, Darko pushed the driver and applied the brakes and took control of the vehicle.

The prosecutor said, Lartey and Alhassan pulled the driver into the bush and used a nylon rope to tie both legs and hands, put him under a tree and drove the vehicle away.

He said the driver struggled over twenty minutes before he could untie himself and made a report to the Mpraeso Police and a further announcement was made on Life FM, an Nkawkaw-based FM station.

He said one Kofi Sasu, a driver who heard the news of the stolen vehicle was driving his cargo truck from Koforidua to Nkawkaw when he saw the vehicle at Nsutam barrier parked.

He said Sasu confronted Lartey who was sitting in the vehicle on the whereabouts of the driver and Lartey told him the driver had gone to fetch water to put in the engine.

The prosecutor said Sasu solicited assistance from CEPS officers at the barrier and members of the public to arrest Lartey and Darko who was nearby and attempted to escape but was chased and apprehended.

Alhassan, however, managed to escape and is being looked for by the police.

In a related development, the Nkawkaw police have impounded a Toyota corolla taxi cab with registration number GT 6673 Q which was abandoned on the Nkawkaw-Obomeng road.

According to the police, documents retrieved from the vehicle bear the name of one Beatrice Quaye of Labone-Apapa in Accra.

Meanwhile, a young man who attempted to drive somebody's car away while he was urinating at a very short distance from the vehicle at Akwasiho near Nkawkaw, has also been arrested by the Nkawkaw police and is being investigated.