Suspected leader of KNUST stealing gang busted

Kumasi, Feb 13, GNA - Security men at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, last Friday arrested one Daniel Ofori alias 'Joe', a taxi driver, suspected to be the king-pin behind the recent robbery cases at the campus.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Kofi Addo (rtd), Head of the Security Department, who spoke to the GNA moments after the arrest, said his office intensified its search for criminals operating on campus following recent attacks on some female students commuting between Ayeduase (a peripheral community) and the campus.

He said during four separate robbery incidences, four female students were attacked and robbed on January 17, 26 and 30, this year at the same spot and items stolen included five mobile phones, over a million cedis cash, a laptop computer and a CD player. Lt-Col Addo said investigations after the arrest revealed that the modus operandi of all the robbery cases were the same and that the attacks took place between 1800 and 2000 hours when students may either be going to their hostels to rest or to the campus to study. He said the robbers usually included the taxi driver and two other passengers, one male and a female on board the cabbie, which would be heading towards Ayeduase and that on reaching a particular junction; the driver will stop for the female passenger to drop off as part of the scheme.

The gang will then pick on board the innocent students desperately looking for a taxi and then drive through the Mango road and at the dark portion of the road, the gang would rob the victims and push them out of the taxi whilst moving at a terrific speed. Luck however eluded the syndicate when after a robbery the lady victim managed to pick the registration number of the taxicab, which developed a fault a few minutes after the robbery. The security personnel who got to know of the incident laid ambush and arrested the perpetrators when they came back to tow the taxi. 13 Feb 07