Robbery Victims Escape Rape

Fulani armed robbers ambushed and attacked two buses travelling from Bolgatanga to Accra during the early hours of yesterday. However, a mass rape ordered by the armed robbers was averted when a woman among the victims pleaded in the name of Prophet Mohammed.

The vehicles, a Yutong bus with registration number GT 507 Z and a Benz bus with number GR5039L were attacked on the outskirts of Atta Akura, a village in the Kintampo North Municipality.

The armed robbers took away mobile phones, cash, jewelries and other items.

Narrating the incident to Daily Guide, an eyewitness who was also a victim said at about 2:00am, when they were approaching Atta Akura, they came across a roadblock created with huge boulders and sticks.

Immediately the driver of the Yutong bus on which they were travelling stopped, the armed robbers boarded the vehicle and at gunpoint, ordered all passengers to come down. According to the eyewitness, when they alighted, they saw other armed robbers who were wielding AK 47 assault rifles.

They were ordered to lie down while they were thoroughly searched.

The eyewitness told Daily Guide that while they were being searched, another bus pulled up and some of the armed robbers diverted their attention to it, ordered passengers to come out and asked them to also lie down.

He said the Yotong bus driver, who wanted to stand up, was shot in his thigh and warned not to try anything funny. According to the eyewitness, the Fulani armed robbers spoke Hausa and Fulani.

He told Daily Guide that after the operation, the leader of the gang, who had an Osama bin Laden-like beard, ordered his fellow armed robbers in their Fulani language to rape the women.

As the robbers began to take their clothes off, a Fulani woman, who was among the victims, identified herself as a fellow Fulani and pleaded with them in the name of Prophet Mohamed to spare them because some of them were married, adding that the Koran abhorred such a behaviour.

According to the eyewitness, the Fulani woman’s plea touched the hearts of the robbers, who abandoned the idea of raping them and fled to the bush. Speaking to Classic FM, a Techiman based private radio station, the Kintampo North Police Commander, Superintendent Desmond Owusu Boampong, confirmed the armed robbery incident and said all efforts were being made to apprehend the robbers.

He appealed to the general public to help the Ghana Police Service and other security services to fight the armed robbery menace. He said the police relied heavily on information provided by the public to fight crime and as such each and everyone should help fight these armed robbers. He promised that the Kintampo Police would intensify their night patrol to protect passengers who travel on the Kintampo Tamale road as well as Kintampo-Techiman road.