Police and robbers fight for space in Tema

Tema, July 24, GNA- The Ghana Police Service and armed robbers are fighting for space in the Tema Metropolis as each group strives to take the upper hand in controlling the metropolis.

The police had however defeated the armed robbers leading to the armed robbers extending their nefarious activities to Dawhenya, Prampram, Kpone and surrounding areas, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) John Kudalor, Tema Regional Police Commander said on Wednesday. He was addressing a press conference on circumstances leading to the police shooting and killing 33-year old Nii Annan Darpoh alias Seidi at New Dawhenya in the early hours of Thursday July 17. DCOP Kudalor indicated that due to the effective control of criminal activities in the metropolis, criminals who were operating within the metropolis have shifted their attention to developing areas within the Tema Region.

He said the Command would impound unregistered vehicles in the Region from 1800 hours daily, while owners of the vehicles would also be prosecuted as one of the measures to flush out criminals from operating in the region.

The Tema Commander called on residents of such areas to be on the alert of suspicious characters and strangers in addition to providing lights in their vicinity.

Recounting circumstances leading to the shooting, DCOP Kudalor explained that the alertness of the personnel heightened after they had received distress calls including a robbery and kidnapping case between the night of July 16 and dawn of July 17 from some stations and therefore prepared against defending their lives and that of the public. He said four policemen from the Prampram District Police responded to one of such calls the station received at about 0400 hours, concerning series of armed robbery attacks around New Dawhenya. The police who mounted an intensive search for the armed robbers ordered the deceased and two other men wielding machetes and sticks to lie down pointing their weapons at them after receiving information from a victim that the said robbers were hiding in an uncompleted house in the bush.

The Tema Commander claimed that "the deceased defied the instructions and allegedly walked towards the police with a machete in hand and the personnel who viewed the non-compliance of instruction as an intended attack, acted proactively and fired at the ankle of the deceased to maim him." He added that while his colleagues were sent to the Prampram police, Nii Darpoh was sent to the Tema General Hospital where he died on the same day at about 1630 hours, noting that the police was investigating the case and the personnel who fired would be dealt with when found culpable. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwesi Ofori, Director of Police Public Affairs, advised the public to always stay indoors after alerting the police of robberies in their localities, explaining that, anybody found at the scene could be mistaken for a suspect by the police.

He also called on the media and other stakeholders to help the police to fight crime in the country by volunteering information and providing logistics to the police, stating that "policing is a shared responsibility".

Meanwhile Mr Kennedy Agyepong, Member of Parliament for Assin Fosu and resident of Tema has donated a Mitsubishi car to the Tema police to help improve police activities in the metropolis. Prior to the press conference, a student journalist who was robbed and kidnapped by some armed robbers narrated his ordeal to the press and stated that the attackers crossed him with their unregistered green Joe Prisn Saloon car on July 16 after he had cashed GH¢8,000 from Sakumono Trust Bank.

The victim whose identity was not disclosed said the robbers collected the money and his car from him at gun point and ordered him to call his relatives to deliver an addition GH¢10,000 to them near the Kpone cemetery, before he would be released. The victim who claimed he was hit several times by the attackers with the back of the revolver and AK47 riffle they were holding, managed to free himself after struggling with them. 24 July 08