Attackers Were Hiding In Bathroom

One of the victims of last Friday's incident in which three persons were attacked at the King David Hotel has said they were attacked by a number of people.

Speaking at his bedside at the 37 Military Hospital, where he and his two colleagues, Issaka Amadu Mohammed and Alhassan Zabram, are on admission, Tahiru Ibrahim said their attackers were hiding in the bathroom at the time they entered the hotel room.

The three persons were on Friday rushed to the 37 Military Hospital in life-threatening condition following an attack on them by a businessman, Oumar Jaro, under bizarre circumstance at the King David Hotel at Kokomlemle in Accra.

In what appeared to be a business transaction that had gone sour, the three were alleged to have been overpowered by the businessman after inflicting deep cuts on their heads, necks and other parts of the body.

Tahiru said he saw a number of legs in the bathroom but did not suspect anything until he was hit at the back of his head with a metal object after his two colleagues had already entered the room to transact the business.

“I immediately fell down and became unconscious. I later found myself on the hospital bed here,” he stated.
Hospital authorities have given the assurance that the victims are responding to treatment.

The three persons, said to be dealers in foreign exchange, met the businessman, Jaro, at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle last Thursday.

A source close to the family of the victims said the businessman claimed he had some CFA Francs which he wanted to change into dollars.

The family members of the victims told the Daily Graphic that the so-called businessman, who is at large, was said to have told the victims that he needed $10,000 for some transaction.

The victims agreed to help the suspect in the transaction but noted that because it was late, the transaction be deferred to the next day and it was agreed that the businessman be assisted to lodge at the King David Hotel.

The source said the victims went to the hotel Friday morning, at about 7 a.m., as agreed the previous day, and met the businessman, whose name was given as Oumar Jaro, for the transactions.

The source said some family members became suspicious when the victims did not return to their house at about 9 a.m. that Friday.

According to the source, the family members decided to send some family members to the hotel to find out whether or not something had gone wrong but on all three occasions that they checked at the hotel, the receptionist told them that the victims and their partners had left.

The source said when those sent got to the hotel again, at about 2 p.m., one of them decided to peep through the window and he found the victims lying on the floor, so he raised an alarm.