One person has been shot dead and four others are battling for their lives after a robbery incident in the Alabar area of Kumasi.
The victims, all of whom are traders, sustained cuts and gunshot wounds as a gang of roughly seven men wielding machetes and guns robbed them of an unspecified amount of cash.
The attack took place just before midday on Friday 30 October 2020. The robbers then escaped on motorbikes.
A later gun battle between the robbers and a joint police-military team brought the situation under control at the Santasi Roundabout in Kumasi.
Police sources tell Asaaseradio.com that three men have been arrested on suspicion of robbery following the armed attack. They have been named as Salifu Iddrisu, 18, Hamza Nuhu, 22, and Ali Razak, 18. Nuhu is said to have been shot in the right thigh as security personnel gave pursuit.
The official spokesman for the police command in the Ashanti Region, Assistant Superintendent of Police Godwin Ahianyo, confirmed that Hamza Nuhu is on admission at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and receiving treatment for his injury.
The dead man was named as Nuhu Fuseini, aged 54, an onion seller at Alabar.
Spate of robberies
Friday’s incident comes barely two days after gunmen attacked the owner of the Sky Filling Station at Asuodei, in the Ahafo Ano East District of Ashanti.
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 official trip to the Western Region.
No cause for alarm
However, the Ashanti Regional Police Command has assured residents that Ashanti is safe, despite the string of robberies.
ASP Ahianyo has denied reports suggesting that the region is no longer safe.
“Let me just assure the general public that Kumasi is safe. We just recorded isolated cases: it is not that Kumasi is unsafe, it is ungovernable, and that there is insecurity in the region,” he said.
The police continue to hunt for the robbery suspects so far not apprehended.
Fred Dzakpata
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UPDATE: This article was revised at 7.25pm on 30 October to reflect details of the death and the arrests made so far.
