Police to Begin Crackdown On Armed Robbers

The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ernest Owusu Poku, will meet with all of the Regional Police Chiefs in Accra today to plan a "co-coordinated response" to the recent spate of armed robberies in the country. Yesterday, the government pledged to ensure that, "there is no hiding place for criminals in any part of this country."

"They may run," explained Ferdinand Ayim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Information "but they cannot hide."

The government's determined words come in response to Monday's daring daylight robbery in Kumasi, which ended in a bloody gunfight between the sixteen strong armed gang, and members of the Police 'Buffalo Unit'. Five robbers and one policeman died in the fighting. Three of the slain robbers, who were armed with AK-47 rifles, shotguns, pistols and machetes, were lynched by members of the public nearby whilst trying to escape after being injured in the shoot-out.

The police are also concerned with an upsurge of violence against expatriates in Accra. Guns and knives have been used in a series of attacks on diplomats, tourists, volunteers that began around late February, and have continued since, often in the same areas. One attempted attack on an employee of the British High Commission led to a high speed car chase through the city; another involved a female volunteer being stabbed whilst out celebrating her birthday.

Although these attacks have not resulted in any deaths as yet, the government is taking no chances. "No place in Ghana will be safe for them," said Mr. Ayim of the perpetrators. The authorities are worried about the "level of misplaced confidence" and sense of "impunity" that the criminals appear to have, and so are, "determined to respond appropriately."

So far, though, there have been no arrests in connection with the assaults in Accra, and three of the robbers involved in the raid in Kumasi remain at large.