Robber shot in eyeball

A 20-year-old audacious armed robber has been blinded by gunshots in a shoot-out with the occupant of a house at Oyibi, near Dodowa in the Greater Accra region.

When the bullet caught the right eye of the armed robber, it almost popped out of its socket.

Ransford Tetteh Odikro who hails from Somanya and identified as a hardened criminal in the town, on Thursday night (March 19), stormed Oyibi on a robbery expedition with two other accomplices and in an attempt to rob one of the plush houses in the area, they were faced with fierce resistance from the owner of the house who engaged them in a gun-battle, cutting short their mission on that day.

The owner of the house, who was in possession of a gun at the time of the attack, was said to have engaged the armed robbers in a fierce gun-battle which resulted in Ransford's injury, forcing the miscreants to flee for dear life.

Ransford's accomplices, who might also have received gunshot wounds, had to rush their colleague who was then in a critical condition, to a fetish shrine at Ogome in Somanya for treatment, but within hours of the suspect's arrival, the Somanya Police got information about his presence at the place and consequently arrested him at about 5.00am of the next day.

Narrating the arrest of Ransford Tetteh Odikro to DAILY GUIDE at Somanya, the District Commander, ASP Twum Barimah said the Somanya Police got the information moments after the robbers' encounter because of the fact that the police had trusted informants in the community, notoriously noted for criminal activities in the region.

The District Commander said when the suspect was picked at the fetish priest's shrine, he confessed to going on a robbery expedition at Oyibi which ended in his becoming partially blind.

According to him, the police took Ransford's statement in the presence of an independent witness and later sent him to the Atua Government Hospital at Odumase-Krobo where the eye specialist in charge referred him to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra for a major operation because of his critical condition.

ASP Twum Barimah told DAILY GUIDE that the suspect will soon be transferred to the Oyibi Police where the robbery took place for them to continue with investigations.

He appealed to people living in Somanya, Dodowa, Oyibi and Madina, especially those who work in health facilities, to be on the lookout for people who have any gunshot wounds and might report to them for treatment, adding that they should report such persons to a nearby police station.

“We strongly suspect that the two accomplices might have been hit by gunshots in the shoot-out and would be seeking medical treatment somewhere in those localities that is why we are appealing to people to be on the lookout,” the District Commander said.