Police constable killed by highway robbers
A 30-year-old police constable, Frank Edu, was shot dead by suspected armed robbers on the Kwame Danso-Atebubu road in the Brong Ahafo Region early yesterday morning.
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Constable Edu was escorting market women in a bus from Kwame Danso to Atebubu when the armed robbers suddenly emerged from the bush and started shooting.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Police Crime Officer, Superintendent of Police Mr Maama Arhin, told the Daily Graphic that the incident happened between Bantama and Garadima between 6.30 a.m. and 7 a.m.
He said Constable Edu was seated on the front seat of the bus filled with market women who were on their way to the Atebubu Market.
Mr Arhin said after committing the act, the armed robbers took the policeman’s rifle and fled into the bush without robbing the passengers.
“The police have mounted a search for the robbers,” he said, and appealed to the public to provide information to ensure that the robbers were arrested.
Reports
Although the police said reports about the incident were scanty, sources from the area indicated that apart from the constable, two others who sustained gunshot wounds were receiving treatment at the Atebubu Hospital.
The reports added that Constable Edu engaged one of the armed robbers in a shootout but four others emerged from the bush to kill him.
Police deaths
This year alone, a number of policemen have been killed, mostly in the line of duty.
In January, Corporal Alexander Kyeremeh, 30, was killed when suspected armed robbers shot him in the rib while he was travelling from Yeji to Kumasi
In another incident, Constable Emmanuel Nii Atseku of the Rapid Deployment Force Unit at the Volta Regional Police Command was shot dead by armed robbers in Ho.
Another policeman was also shot dead by a group of armed robbers in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Corporal Frank Essel, a driver with the SWAT Unit at the Ashanti Regional Police Headquarters, was shot on May 19 after armed robbers had stormed a hotel at Dichemmuoso in Kumasi.
Seven suspected robbers arrested
In a related development, seven suspected armed robbers have been rounded up by the police at Yeji and Kwame Danso.
The armed robbers, who were on the police wanted list, were arrested in a swoop last Monday, June 6, 2016.
They are Haruna Abdulai, 21; Annor Sekyere Abraham, 23; Akwasi Sunkwa, 21; Ibrahim Hamidu, 18; Hairy Mohammed, alias Booza,31; Mohammed Awal, 19, and Awudu Last Mohammed, 20.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Police Commander, DCOP Maxwell Atingane, told journalists that there were more such criminals in the area who were on the wanted list of the police.
While thanking people whose tip-off led to the arrest of the suspected armed robbers, he appealed to others to be vigilant and report all such suspects in the area to the police.