6 Robbers Nailed

POLICE IN Kumasi have apprehended six suspected armed robbers at Aboabo Number Two, a Muslim community in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

They are Nashiru Iddrisu, 20, Adama Ibrahim, aka Papa, 20, Abdul Rashid, aka Sentence, 19, Klusali Ali, 19, and Musah Alhasan, aka Baba, 18.

The suspects who have been placed in police custody to assist in investigations would be arraigned soon, the Ashanti Regional Crime Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Bright Oduro told journalists.

Briefing media personnel at his office last Friday, ACP Oduro said the Police, acting upon a tip-off, arrested the suspects at their hideout on October 10, this year.

According to him, the suspects were planning to embark on a robbery operation at the time of arrest.

He said the police found on them one locally made pistol, two sharp knives, one cutlass, one cap, four masks, four live cartridges and a military jacket. The suspects, ACP Oduro said, might have previously committed robberies in the metropolis.

He therefore appealed to residents of Kumasi, especially those who had been attacked by armed robbers, to come to the Kumasi Central Police Station and identify the suspects, to help the police in their investigations.

ACP Oduro assured the public that the police are firmly in control of the security situation in the metropolis, and appealed to the public to volunteer vital information on deviant citizens in society to enable the police flush out criminals.

In a related development, the Ashanti Regional Police Command has placed a ¢20million ransom on a notorious lone gunman who is said to have committed five robberies in Kumasi and three in Sunyani.

The suspect, believed to be in his late 20s is described by eyewitnesses and his victims as a notorious gangster who embarks on his robbery operations with an AK47 assault rifle.

He is said to operate alone in broad daylight and in the full glare of people, mostly on a motorbike.

He is said to be of medium height and has a tribal mark on his left cheek but always covers both cheeks with plaster, ostensibly to outwit the security agencies.

The Ashanti Regional Crime Officer told media personnel that a 17-year-old girl, believed to be the suspect's girlfriend who was recently picked up by the police, gave his name as Gyamfi.

Enumerating some of the heinous crimes the gunman had committed in the metropolis, ACP Oduro adduced that on August 16, 2007 the suspect shot and killed a security guard at the Owusu Ansah Company Limited at Ohwim, a suburb of Kumasi, where he made away with ¢90 million.

He continued that the suspect, on August 7 and 28, this year, attacked the Managing Director of Owusu Ansah Company Limited and robbed him of ¢159 million and ¢400 million respectively.

The police chief could not readily confirm why the suspect had persistently been attacking the company.

ACP Oduro added that on July 26, this year, the suspected armed robber attacked a businessman at Kotwi, a suburb of Kumasi and robbed him of ¢56 million.

Continuing, he said the robber, on October 11, this year, attacked three employees of Gocrest Security Services Company, shot one of them in the thigh and dispossessed them of ¢480 million.

Commenting on the general security situation in the region, ACP Oduro said even though there were few reported cases of car snatching, robbery in Kumasi was at the lowest level but for the recent robbery attacks by the suspected lone gunman.

He appealed to the general public to be on the lookout and promptly provide information that could lead to the arrest of the robber.

From Fred J.A Ibrahim Jnr., Kumasi