Armed highway robbers kill forest guard

Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), Feb. 09,GNA – Armed robbers on Monday killed a forest guard after molesting and robbing about 140 passengers traveling from Dormaa-Ahenkro to Kofikumikrom, near the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border.

The body of the 30 year old forest guard, Christian Boakye, and five cartridge shells were found by a police patrol team about 200 metres from the crime scene on Tuesday.

The deceased has since been deposited at the mortuary of the Presbyterian hospital at Dormaa Ahenkro for autopsy while police are investigating the robbery incident.

Briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dormaa-Ahenkro, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mahamud Yussif, Dormaa District Police Commander, said the driver of a Peugeot caravan who plied between Dormaa-Ahenkro and Kofikumikrom came to report a robbery incident at a spot between Atesikrom and Duasidan.

He said the Police swiftly mobilized a patrol team that rushed to the scene where they found three motorbikes, three taxi-cabs, a KIA truck and two big buses, with some of the passengers still lying prostrate while others looked traumatized.

DSP Yussif said the passengers told the Police that the robbers took away their mobile phones and money and fled into the bush.

The patrol team dislodged a barricade the robbers had erected, to allow for free flow of traffic and returned to Dormaa-Ahenkro.

DSP Yussif said the next day, the Police received another report from one Kwasi Oppong, a forest guard that a colleague, Boakye, was shot and killed by the robbers as he (Boakye) attempted to escape from the robbery scene.

The District Police Commander indicated that a further search by the patrol team located Boakye’s corpse some 200 metres from the robbery spot.

In a related interview, Mr. Odame Antri, Deputy Dormaa Municipal Forestry officer, disclosed to the GNA that the two forest guards were returning from their normal duties on a motorbike when they got caught up in the hold up.