Armed robbers raid Koforidua cold store

Armed Robbers have raided a cold store at Koforidua, and held in the process, the proprietress, workers and some customers hostage.

They finally collected all the money they could lay hands on and bolted. Mrs. Comfort Asamoah, Proprietress of Lescon Enterprises, a leading distributor of frozen food products, told the GNA that she had taken a consignment of products earlier in the evening from Tema, which was being discharged for sale to the customers, when a man armed with a gun entered the store. She said the man, who was tall and stout and spotting a hat, demanded that she handed over all the money she had on her or risk being shot dead with the customers, who were there to transact business at about 21:15 hours. She said while he was making his demand, two men equally armed with guns followed and forcibly dragged five porters, who were then at the entrance into the store. Mrs. Asamoah said she immediately complied with the demand of the robbers by giving them eight million cedis she had on her and an unspecified amount from the sales made that day. "The customers, who were many, handed in cash ranging from 400,000 cedis and above over to them and despite our compliance, the robbers suspected we had an additional cash on us and threatened to shoot us if we did not hand them all over", she added.

Mrs. Asamoah said after they had given them the money the robbers then asked them to go to a corner of the store while pointing the guns at them and warned some of the women, who wanted to attract attention that they would be killed if they made any noise. After insisting that they had given all the money they had to them, one of the robbers aimed a gun at her but fired into the air, which scared her and she rushed into another corner while another robber kept vigilance on the rest. Mrs. Asamoah said she was so scared that she told them to take away everything they wanted but to spare their lives. She said the robber not satisfied, fired another shot, which attracted one of the male workers, who was then in the cold room and was unaware of what was going on, but as soon as he stepped out one of them hit his face with the butt of his gun. The proprietor said blood started oozing out from the ears of the worker, who is now receiving medical attention at the Koforidua Central Hospital. Mrs. Asamoah said after one of them had thrown away her phone and ransacked a fridge, the robbers, spontaneously firing warning shots, entered a car and sped off followed by a motorbike. She said she immediately made a report to the Koforidua Central Police Station but they said they could not alert other Police posts because their phone was not working.

The robbery occurred nine hours after the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Peter Nanfuri had decorated personnel of the Eastern Regional Command with June 4 uprising commemorative medals at Koforidua and had asked them to make their presence felt in the society.