Dutch Lady Murdered By Robbers

Gunmen on motorbikes in the afternoon of Friday, 8 th March 2013, shot and killed a Dutch national at New Sebrepor, near the Michel Camp in Tema.

Deceased, Afke Kuipers, 25, was among a group of four Romanians and four Dutch who were returning from Akplabanya in the Sege District of the Greater Accra Region, where their Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is undertaking the construction of a school library project for the community.

This brings to three the number of persons murdered in that enclave over the past three months.  The former Circuit Court judge of Ashaiman, Mr. Azumah Tsatsu Seyram, survived a similar attack recently.

Investigations we conducted at New Sebrepor revealed that the victim was driving a Ford vehicle, with registration number WR 2097 Z, carrying her other seven colleagues, when the incident occurred.

After branching off the main Tema-Akosombo highway into New Sebrepor, two unregistered motorbikes, with two persons on each, approached from behind, and exactly in front of Bishop Wright's house on the Bishop Wright road, the bikers crossed the Ford and ordered the occupants to surrender their mobile phones and other belongings, to which the occupants obliged.

Without provocation, the masked gunmen fired two shots into the car, resulting in one pellet penetrating the breast of the Dutch lady, and sped off. Neighbours, on seeing the gangsters, pulled out guns and firing shots fled to safety, but the brave ones managed to rush to the Ford vehicle carrying the foreigners and shouted for help.

A certain Hajia, a 'waakye' seller at the junction, who was driving, got to the scene and assisted the injured young woman, first to the Crystal Clinic at Kakasunanka number one, but the medical personnel on duty quickly referred her to the Tema General Hospital, where she died a few minutes after arrival.

Her body has been subsequently deposited at the Police Hospital mortuary pending autopsy. The gunmen, our investigation further uncovered, took away from the occupants' mobile phones, laptops, and about 200 Euros.

The panic-stricken Europeans were taken from their home at New Sebrepor, and sent to a hotel at Dodowa, from where we gathered they flew out of the country.

Information we have, suggests that the fate of two library projects at Akplabanya and Agormanya in the Lower Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region respectively, which are being funded by the Dutch government, and where the group of young Europeans were assisting the communities, are in danger of survival, since the death of Afke Kuipers has sent shock waves to the diplomatic community in Ghana.

Further investigations revealed that the wife of a certain man is reportedly claiming ownership of the Ford salon car, but the Dutch Embassy has decided to take custody of the vehicle this week, as investigation into her death is on-going.

About four months ago, the media raised the alarm on insecurity in that area, with emphasis on Mataheko becoming a 'Republic'.

This is because of an alleged court injunction against the police from operating there, even though credible information suggests that there are stockpiles of arms, from AK47 assault rifles, SMGs to locally manufactured guns (Alavango) hidden in the bushes there.

On November 2, last year, the mutilated body of one Larsiotey was discovered in the bush at Mataheko, off the Tema-Akosombo highway.

In the month, one Abass, a contractor working with Special Steel Limited at Tema, went to withdraw GH¢63,000 from the Merchant Bank at the Tema Heavy Industrial area, and on reaching a place close to the Driver and Licensing Authority Tema Regional offices, two men on a bike, at gunpoint, robbed him of the amount.

Last month, Abass again went to the same Merchant Bank, and this time withdrew GH¢15,000 from the same cashier, and again, armed men on a bike held him at gunpoint at a place near the Tema Community Nine public cemetery, and succeeded in robbing him of the amount.

The Tema Community One police are investigating the two cases.

On the 23 rd of last month, a retired Air Force officer, Flt-Lt Francis Matanawui, was murdered in cold blood in his home at New Dawhenya, which is part of the enclave.

And barely three days later, on February 26, this year, the master bedroom of Judge Azumah Tsatsu Seyram was sprayed from outside with a number of shots, after the assailants overpowered the security guard and a driver in the house, also at New Dawhenya.

The new Emet Police Station, being the closest in the vast area, can boast of only two uniformed personnel, with one a driver on leave, to attend to his ailing wife.

Meanwhile, the police are reminding the public of an existing information reward system.

Acting Director of Public Affairs at the Police Headquarters Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Cephas Arthur, in an interview with this reporter, said a lot of their operations were in collaboration with the general public, who later receive handsome rewards for leading police to such arrests.