Police deploy task force to combat robbers

THE Greater Accra Regional Police Command yesterday deployed a 500-member task force under a special exercise code-named “Operation Restore Hope”, to clamp down on the activities of armed robbers in the Accra metropolis.

This follows revelations by police intelligence that a number of armed robbery gangs have changed the time for their operations from night to day.


Superintendent F. Adu-Poku, Nima Divisional Police Commander , who disclosed this to the Graphic in an interview, appealed to members of the public not to feel intimidated by the heavy police presence.


According to him, the exercise will continue until further notice.


Mr Adu-Poku said the armed police personnel, drawn from the Nima, Kpeshie and Accra Central Police divisions, will mount mobile and foot patrols, adding that they are under instructions to deal “most ruthlessly” with the armed robbers.


Superintendent Adu-Poku gave the assurance that the police are prepared to rid the metropolis of armed robbers and called for the co-operation the general public during the exercise.


He said the police patrol teams have already identified a number of areas targeted by the gangs and “have taken steps to thwart the efforts of the robbers”.

For some time now, armed robbers in the Accra metropolis have been operating in broad daylight.


At the weekend, for instance, the police arrested two armed robbers who attacked the Rainbow Trading Company, on the Graphic Road in Accra.


The robbers, who were said to be wielding guns, attacked the store at 8.30 a.m. when the store owner was about to open the doors for the day’s business.


At noon, on April 10 , this year, five unidentified armed robbers stormed the premises of the Street Mobile Phones Limited at Dansoman, and made away with assorted brands of cellular phones valued at ? 20 million.


Another group of armed robbers raided the offices of a private company, Cold Temperatures Limited, at the Awudome Estates, in the morning of May 18, this year, and made, away with items worth millions of cedis and an unspecified amount of money.