Chief Shot Dead

Masked gunmen last Tuesday invaded Nyankumasu, a village near Asokwa in the Adansi North District of Ashanti, gunned down two men, including the chief of the village, and left other residents with cutlass and gunshot wounds. The attackers escaped with cash and some valuables allegedly stolen from the four houses they ransacked. The deceased chief, Nana Brentuo II, 50, who was installed only a few months ago, was shot in the right eye and he died instantly. Another victim of the shooting incident was identified as Robert Dankwa, 45, who died later at the Anglogold Ashanti Hospital in Obuasi where he had been rushed to receive medical attention. The robbers, who stormed the town at about 1 am, attacked four houses, subjected their victims to a lengthy ordeal of torture and bolted in the full glare of terrified onlookers. The Obuasi Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Kwabena Akuoko Oduro, told the Graphic that when the robbers stormed the town, they first attacked Nana Brentuo at his private residence at the outskirts of the town, tied his watchman, Abu Issaka, and dumped him in a nearby bush, warning him that they would shoot him if he made any noise to attract attention. He said they later broke into Nana Brentuo's room and when the chief saw them, he attempted to reach for his shotgun but the robbers shot him in the right eye, in the presence of his nine-year-old son, Nana Yaw, after which they ransacked the house and took away some valuables. According to Chief Supt Oduro, just after the robbers had killed the chief and ransacked his house, they turned their attention to a second house where they knocked on the door of one Robert Dankwa. He said when Dankwa opened his door, they pulled him out and shot him in the waist, and thinking that he was dead, they abandoned him, leaving behind a locally-manufactured pistol at the scene. They then turned their attention to a third house where they broke into the rooms of Joe Mintah, robbing him of ¢750,000, a video compact disc (VCD) player and a pair of shoes. He said another person who fell victim in that house was one Diana Dei, a schoolteacher in the town, whom they robbed of ¢120,000. He said they also broke into the room of one Kwaku Dankwa but they did not get anything. He said while the attack went on, other tenants in the house who overheard it and were terrified by it fled through their windows into the bush. Chief Supt Oduro said the robbers moved into a fourth house whose landlady, Madam Yaa Kumah, was out of town. He said they broke into her room, ransacked it and took away an unspecified number of items before attacking a pastor tenant and his wife at gunpoint. He said they robbed the pastor, Johnson Owusu, and his wife of ¢3 million and inflicted cutlass wounds on the wife. He said police officers on barrier duties near Kwabena Kwa who had a wind of the attack tried to pursue the robbers but the latter took to their heels and went into the bush. He said the police pursued them into the bush but were unable to get any of them. He said while escaping through the bush, the robbers left behind some of their booty — a black polythene bag which contained a VCD player and a wax print. He said the police also retrieved a half pair of rubber sandals. He said the pastor's wife had since been treated and discharged at the Anglogold Ashanti Hospital, while the bodies of the deceased had been deposited at the same hospital for autopsy, adding that investigations were still ongoing.