Kumasi Robbers Adopt New Tricks

?To Outwit Police
Armed robbers operating in the Kumasi metropolis appear to have moved a step head of the security agencies. Their new strategy is to strike at dawn just when the security patrol teams are retiring after all-night duty. Three different gangs of robbers employed this method when they successfully robbed a number of people of money and other valuables between 4a.m. and 5:30am on Wednesday, January 11.

Briefing the Times yesterday, Inspector Yusif Mohammed Tanko said that in the first case which happened at Bantama at about 4a.m, Kwame Appau, a taxi driver was stopped by four men ostensibly to hire his taxi, but his shock they pulled out pistols and ordered him out of the car. They then drove away.

The gang used the taxi to rob another person, a trader, Kwame Amankwa at the Ahodwo roundabout. They took his mobile phone and ?1million before pushing him out of the moving car. In the third incident, Inspector Tanko said Massouhouby Bukari who left home at about 4:30am to board a vehicle at the O&A Bus Terminal at Asafo was attacked by six member gang wielding cutlasses. They found ?120,000 on him but left him unharmed.

However a few metres away, the gang?s next victim, Joseph Baah, engaged them in a struggle as they attempted to attack him. In the process, the robbers inflicted severe cutlass wounds on him and fled with his mobile phone and ?6million. He was left bleeding profusely. In the last incidence, a resident of North Patasi, Bright Stephen Antwi, was attacked while waiting for a vehicle at the South Suntreso junction at about 5:30am.

Four men pulled up in a taxi and as he moved to board the car, the occupants drew guns and snatched his briefcase containing office documents and sped off. The police said they have neither made any arrests in all the cases nor retrieved any items, but Inspector Tankso assured the public that they have intensified investigations and asked for cooperation to track down the culprits.