The Police Service has sent a strong signal that it is determined to flush out armed robbery from the streets, residential areas and highways of Ghana.
“The police want to assure Ghanaians that they are determined to get rid of street, residential and highway robberies throughout the country, and anyone who steps in the way of the police will not be spared,” said a statement signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kwesi Ofori, the acting director general of the Ghana Police Service, and dated 9 August.
Armed officers of the Ghana Police Service gunned down three men they describe as “notorious armed robbers”, the statement said, naming the deceased robbers as Akika Christian Roberts, Allhassan and Alhaji.
It said that the three men, “who have been on the police wanted list, have been shot dead by the police in a shootout at Opeibea, near Airport, today 9 August, with two other accomplices arrested”.
The police statement noted, “Intelligence available to the police indicates that the gang planned to attack and rob a businessman who was to withdraw money from a bank around Airport. The police laid surveillance on the robbers and when they showed up, closed in on them.
“[The suspect] Akika Christian Robert, who was armed with a Taurus foreign pistol, shot and wounded a police officer in the shootout but succumbed to police firing power. Two suspects, namely Abdul Latif, 47, and Prosper Koku, 27, who were suspected to be part of the gang, were arrested and are currently in police custody assisting in investigation,” the statement said.
The statement said a police officer who sustained gunshot wounds in the right leg during the gun battle with the robbers “is in stable condition and currently receiving medical attention while the three dead bodies are deposited at the Police Hospital Morgue awaiting autopsy”.
The Police Service added that it has “retrieved one Taurus foreign pistol loaded with 27 rounds of ammunition” which was in the possession of one of the robbers.
Wilberforce Asare
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