The police in Atwima Yabi in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region have reportedly gunned down one suspected armed robber in the area.
A three-man robbery gang engaged security officers in a shootout on the Atwima Yabi-Dida Road at about 2 a.m. on Thursday, 11 August 2022.
The suspected robber died after being shot in the belly, while the other two fled with gun wounds.
The residents made a distress call to the police when they were attacked by the raiders, according to the Assembly Member of the area, Joseph Osei Tutu,
“Any native doctor who accommodates these miscreants in their home to give them treatment does so at his or her own peril,” he warned, adding that “the law will deal with anyone that tries to house them”.
Mr Tutu further expressed concern about how these individuals suspected of being armed robbers have terrorized inhabitants of the neighbourhood for a while, resulting in the loss of lives and property.
Osei Tutu said he has personally recruited several police officers in the neighborhood to defend lives and property.
As a result, he has asked stakeholders and well-meaning citizens to assist him to build a police station in the community to help manage crime in the area.
Robbery cases on the rise
From January to the end of October 2019, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) early warning system records captured 80 armed robbery cases in Ghana.
Fast forward to 9 June 2021, a man was shot in the stomach in a daylight robbery by two armed men at Pig Farm.
He was pronounced dead 24 hours after being treated at the 37 Military Hospital.
That same day, two armed men also broke into a forex bureau near Honeysuckle in Osu and made away with an undisclosed amount of money.
The culprits in these two incidents are currently at large.
On 11 June 2021, an unidentified man in an attempted robbery attacked the driver of a Nissan Pathfinder with registration number GE-8088-11 on the GIMPA- Fiesta Royale road.
He threw a big stone at the vehicle, smashing its glass door, and tried to escape into a nearby bush. But he was arrested by the police after the victim drew the police’s attention.
On 14 June, three armed robbers on a motorcycle trailed a Mon-Tran bullion van and robbed occupants of the cash in the van –two were left dead at Adedenkpo in Jamestown.
Sometime in December 2021, two persons were arrested for the East Legon robbery that occurred on Sunday, 5 December.
The suspects were arrested following a distress call received by the patrol team that some unknown men had invaded a neighborhood at CPL Estate, East Legon Hills.
An initial search led to the retrieval of a 75-inch curved television set, an iPhone 12 pro max, one Techno smartphone, and a revolver pistol with four rounds of ammunition.
The team also found a KIA Morning Saloon car which the suspects had parked at the roadside.