Robbers Lynched

Members of the public appear to have decided on the option of taking the law into their own hands by lynching suspected armed robbers when they lay hands on them.

This manner of handling criminals is apparently in response to the rising wave of violent robberies sweeping across the country.

The country-wide phenomenon has already taken the lives of scores of suspected robbers, the latest being a Wednesday dawn operation at Dansoman in Accra, in which suspected armed robbers were killed by an irate crowd.

Two out of the three hoodlums were stopped in their tracks as they attempted escaping with their booty of plastic chairs and tables.

The third who escaped from the irate crowd has cause to celebrate his luck because his colleagues were tied to the stakes and hurled with stones until they let go their lives.

Dansoman Mama’s Inn Junction, venue of the incident, attracted such a large crowd that vehicular and human traffic almost came to a standstill.

Those who feasted their eyes on the gory spectacle were engaged in all manner of conversations about the rising incidents of armed robbery across the country.

The three armed robbers had been on the wanted list of residents over previous alleged robberies.

The lucky armed robber, who only escaped from being lynched by a whisker, was later picked by a Police team who came to the scene.

The 23-year-old suspect was identified as Ebo Kwabena, who once worked with a car-washing bay around the Dansoman Roundabout but was sacked.

He told media personnel at the scene that the slain were his friends and that they had taken part in a robbery operation at a shop, adding that he lived in Kaneshie.

The District Commander of the Dansoman Police Station, Superintendent Yartey Tawiah disclosed that the robbers had been involved in a number of heists, one of which was the attack on a woman at gunpoint.

She was dispossessed of her car with registration number GT 9871X, he disclosed, adding that this was followed by yesterday’s abortive operation.

The stolen car, the police officer said, was later found around Sabon Zongo.

The same robbers, he noted, had previously attacked a certain Kwaku Tagoe, a barber whose kiosk is located around the Dansoman area, making away with over GH¢200.

Superintendent Tawiah said crimes are being committed by the hour in the Dansoman area, suggesting that there is an upsurge of crime in the past few months.

“No day passes without a complaint by residents in the area,” he said.

When the Police took the surviving armed robber to the washing bay, his former employers refused to confirm that they have ever been associated with him.

The police officer said he suspects the car washing bay is a den for criminals. A couple of days ago, a police patrol team engaged suspected armed robbers in a shootout.

In the Northern Region where there was relative safety from such robbery attacks, the equation has changed, necessitating the engagement of armed escorts on State Transport Company (STC) buses traveling from that part of the country to the south.

Last week one such escort killed an armed robber who in league with his colleagues stopped a bus enroute to Accra from Ouagadougou.

In yet another case of public anger against the rising phenomenon and a seeming lack of confidence in the Police, an unidentified armed robber was lynched and his body burnt when he attempted robbing passengers onboard a vehicle with registration number GR 4273D.

The incident, according to the District Information Officer for Bole, Leonard S. Tingbani, occurred at Banda Nkwanta.

A Detective Chief Inspector of Police, John Owusu said the bus was traveling from Kumasi to Wa when the armed robbers used a roadblock to stop it.

Driver of the vehicle, Salaam Aziz, explained that he managed to escape after discovering that the robber was trying to kill him after dispossessing the passengers of monies and mobile phones at about 5.00am on Tuesday.

He returned after an hour and alerted a Benz bus driver on the same route that there was danger ahead.

When he got near his vehicle, thinking that it was safe to continue with the journey, he saw a man in a partial military uniform holding a bag containing his booty.

“The man asked me whether I was not the driver of the vehicle and I quickly realized that he was the armed robber who stopped my vehicle and sought to kill me,” he said.

The driver said he raised an alarm and the robber threw the booty away and took to his heels but he was caught by the passengers and lynched.

A fortnight ago, a Customs, Excise and Preventive Service officer was robbed at his Spintex Road residence in Accra.

His two daughters were raped by the youthful robbers who abandoned raping a third one because she feigned pregnancy.

In yet another incident, a group of armed robbers were arrested by the Police in the Northern Region last week after a robbery operation in which they took away two motorbikes and a number of valuables from their victims.

When the Police upon hearing about the incident landed at the scene, they were able to ferret the suspects.

DAILY GUIDE has learnt that the Ashaiman area is also witnessing a rising incidence of armed robbery following the recent clash between the Police and some commercial drivers.

The hoodlums, it appears, are taking undue advantage of the development to intensify their operations, realizing a seeming lull in Police activities.

The Garden City of Kumasi has not been left out of the robbery spree.

Kumasi Ataa Ayi, a man known as the lone ranger because he went on operations alone clutching his AK47 rifle, terrorised the city for so long.

He undertook daredevil missions and eventually put up a supermarket in the Racecourse area of the Ashanti Regional capital.

Even in captivity, he attempted an escape and was shot in the leg. He is currently behind bars.

The last time Accra witnessed a scale of robbery near the current one was when Ayee Aryeetey, alias Ataa Ayi and his gang were almost on rampage in the nation’s capital, robbing members of the public even during daytime.

City residents heaved a sigh of relief when this notorious armed robber was nabbed and found a place in the Nsawam Prisons.

By Edna Akintonde and A. R. Gomda