Robbers kill police officer over GHC900,000

A police officer with the Tarkwa Divisional Command in the Western Region was reportedly shot dead last Sunday morning at Bogoso, near Tarkwa.

Lance Corporal Nicholas Duku was said to be escorting a huge sum of money to the premises of Plat and Plume Gold Refinery Company Limited based at Bogoso when he was reportedly shot by some unidentified armed men.

Other sources also had it that officials of the gold refinery approached the Tarkwa police and requested for police escort to enable them convey money from Bogoso to Tarkwa.

“And so when they got back to the company’s premises at Bogoso with the policeman, the robbers were carrying out their operation and on seeing the police officer, they shot him,” the source alleged.

The suspected robbers allegedly overpowered a security man and some workers at the gold refinery when they invaded the premises.

“The robbers tired up the security man stationed at the premises and other workers. And then the gangsters managed to rob the company of an amount of GH¢900,000 before killing the policeman,” the source maintained.

Unconfirmed reports had it that the armed robbers, numbering about four who wore face masks, bolted with the policeman’s weapon.

The lifeless body of the cop has since been deposited at the Tarkwa Hospital morgue pending autopsy.

Police PRO

In an interview with this paper, DSP Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), posited that last Sunday, one Shaibu Bashiru, 35, and Rajinder Singh, 50, an Indian national, reported the case to the police in Tarkwa.

She indicated that the two complainants went to the police station with three 9 mm empty shells and two damaged handcuffs.

According to the PRO, the two reported that four armed robbers with face masks and pistol invaded the company’s premises, tired up the security man and other workers and made away with GH¢900,000.

In the process, the suspects shot and killed Lance Corporal Nicholas Duku, who was escorting unspecified amount of money to the company’s premises.

She said they escaped with the booty and later abandoned the vehicle – Nissan Roque with registration number GE 411-16 – at Opong Valley junction, near Bogoso.

Arrest

DSP Adiku indicated that 28 suspects of the refinery company are in police custody on suspicion.

She also pointed out that five other suspects, who had been picked up, were being interrogated.