2 Highway Robbers Nabbed

Two persons were arrested in a tro-tro on the Accra-Asesewa road on suspicion of robbery during a routine check on the bus on Thursday night.

The two, Albert Tawiah, 29 and Solomon Lamptey, 28, were busted by officers from the National Highways Patrol Unit at the Police Headquarters.

The police retrieved items such as a hood, one wrapper of ‘wee’, matches, six rounds of live cartridges, locally manufactured pistol loaded with one round of cartridge, knife, mobile phones, jewellery box containing ladies’ watches, beaded necklaces, two voter’s ID cards (old and new) belonging to one of the suspects, a quantity of shirts, amongst others concealed in a knapsack belonging to one of the suspects.

The items were being kept as exhibits while the two have been caged at the cells of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters for further questioning.

Narrating the incident that led to their arrest, the Highways Patrol Commander, Superintendent Obed Dzikunu, said on November 29, 2012, at about 9:30 p.m., officers from his unit detailed on the Accra-Asesewa road stopped a Toyota Frontier passenger bus which was travelling towards Accra at Asesieso Junction.

During a search, the police found a locally made pistol with one round of ammunition on Albert Tawiah and his pal, Solomon Lamptey.

Further search in Tawiah’s knapsack revealed tell tale items like jewellery box containing ladies’ watches, beaded necklaces, six rounds of live ammunition amongst others which indicated they might be returning from a robbery expedition.

They have since been handed over to the CID for interrogation.

The two may subsequently be charged and arraigned when investigation into the matter was closed.

The police boss appealed to commuters to be tolerant of the police during such stop check duties since it was one of the means they used in clamping down on armed robbers and other criminals.

He asked that persons with information on criminals should be bold enough to report them to the police.

This, he said, would help rid the society of such miscreants and bring robbery and other violent crimes to the barest minimum.