Armed robbers on Wednesday attacked and robbed the entourage of the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Wa West, Edward Laabiir Sabo, and other passengers.
The robbers bolted with unspecified amount of money, phones and other items after holding their victims hostage for at least three hours.
The robbers, who ambushed their victims at Chogsiealong on the Ga-Wechiau road, stopped road users, including the DCE and members of the Wa West District Assembly, who were on their way to a traditional council meeting at Wechiau.
The DCE told Asaase News that at the Chogsie-Kandew Junction, his car was stopped by two men, who were wielding AK-47 rifles, and he directed the driver to move into the bush.
“I asked the driver if he could reverse because the men who were stopping us were quite far ahead. But there were two armed [other] men behind the last vehicle with two others each on the right and left sides of the vehicle respectively, so we had to follow the direction into the bush,” Sabo recalled in an interview with Asaase News.
The robbers then carried out their operation and bolted, he narrated.
Attack on NPP communicator
Last week, the Upper West regional communication director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was shot by suspected armed robbers when he was returning from a campaign tour of the Wa West Constituency of the Upper West Region.
Ali Bukari, who was shot twice at his back after he refused to stop, was rushed to a health facility for treatment.
Spate of robberies
Wednesday’s incident comes barely a week after gunmen attacked the owner of the Sky Filling Station at Asuodei, in the Ahafo Ano East District of the Ashanti Region.
The region has witnessed a number of daytime robbery attacks in the past few months, raising fears about security.
In July, a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church was robbed and gunned down in Kumasi.
On 12 October, the Ashanti regional director of the Electoral Commission, Benjamin Bannor Bio, was attacked and robbed at gunpoint on the highway between Anwiankwanta and Obuasi while returning from an official trip to the Western Region.
Ibrahim Muniru
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