Gunman Takes Four Towns Hostage

Kwabena Takyi, alias E.Y. who shot four persons and himself in September 2001, was at it again last Tuesday, 3rd May when he held residents of Tuobodom, Ofuman, Adutwie and Kyiridiagya, all suburbs near Techiman, hostage.

Standing on a vehicle with registration number AS 4521P which he had commandeered, he fired his two guns indiscriminately and thus in the process prevented any person or vehicle from plying that route.

In the process he shot his "wife", Mary Apomasu alias Yaa Kokoo, burnt one house, smashed three vehicles and threatened to kill any driver who dared drive closer to the hijacked Mazda vehicle from which he was sporadically shooting indiscriminately.

In the ensuing mystification traders and farmers from the Tuobodom direction and travelers from Ofuman on foot took to their heels for their dear lives, whiles people in Tuobodom who are aware of what E.Y. did last four years took cover in their rooms, abandoning their intention to go to farms.

Chief Inspector A.B.K. Sekyere told The Independent that E.Y. in 2001 shot four persons and himself - one at communications centre, one at a drinking spot and other two at a Mosque at Tuobodom and fled to Kranka where he shot himself when he accused his first wife Yaa Yeboah of flirting with another. He said the residents of Kranka brought E.Y. to Techiman Holy Family Hospital in a pool of blood but were transferred to Sunyani when authorities at the Holy Family Hospital got wind that the relatives of his victims were mobilizing to revenge.

Chief Inspector Sekyere said at the Sunyani hospital, E.Y. managed to escape to an unknown destination with the wounds he sustained from his own gunshot, landing the police guarding him in serious trouble. He indicated that before E.Y. committed his first monstrous act he had impregnated a lady called Mary Apomasu at a village called Adutwie along the Tuodom - Ofuman road who delivered after the suspect had fled.

He narrated that E.Y. returned to Tuobodom about three days later without the knowledge of the residents and sneaked to Apmasu at Adutwie, where he was denounced by his wife and he in turn accused the lady of engaging in sex with other men in his absence. The Chief Inspector added that the "in-laws" of E.Y. fled when he issued the threat to show them where power lies. He stressed that after shooting his "wife" he set her house ablaze and captured the Tuobodom-Ofuman road with a single barrel gun in his right hand and a pistol in the other hand firing shots indiscriminately.