Koforidua: Old Estates residents bemoan increase in robberies

Residents of Old Estate, a suburb of the Eastern Regional capital – Koforidua in the New Juaben Municipality are in a state of anxiety due to rampant robberies in the community.

According to them, they are filled with fear and panic anytime they close from work because of some unknown men who usually use motorbikes to snatch their bags containing valuable things like phones, money, among many others.

The robbers recently attacked a nurse working at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital on her way to work where her bag containing some valuables was taken away from her.

According to an eye witness, the lady (name withheld) was standing at a junction when two men on a motor bike suddenly approached her under the pretense of seeking for direction.

To her astonishment, they snatched her bag which contained an amount of sixty Ghana Cedis (GH?60.00), an ATM card and some valuable documents and took to their heels.

She called for help but before people could come to her rescue, the two guys had absconded to a place where no one could trace them.

In an interview with some residents, they said that these recent activities of motorbike robberies have really brought great distress to them as they have to hide their belongings whenever they are leaving or returning to their home especially in the evenings.

“I always have to put my phone in my brassiere along with money whenever I close from work. I usually do this as I don’t know when it would be my turn to be robbed. With this tactic, they can snatch my bag but won’t get anything valuable to take home,” a resident told Brytfmonline reporters, Samuel Mprah and Prince Narh

They attributed this situation to the absence of security personnel paving way for these "motorbike men" to operate freely without any hindrance and pressure.

The residents are therefore appealing to the Regional Police Command to provide them with security men to patrol the residency in order to help curb these motorbike robberies.