Police on manhunt for bike-riding robbers
The police have launched a grand security operation to hunt down suspected robbers who ambushed a vehicle carrying money (specie) and killed a policeman, Lance Corporal Emmanuel Osei of the National SWAT Unit.
A woman of about 30 years, who is yet to be identified, was killed by a stray bullet while she was in her shop.
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The eight-year-old daughter of the slain woman could not control her tears when she returned from school to the news of her mother’s death.
The robbers, who were wielding two AK47 rifles, are said to have waylaid the bullion van, crossed it with their motorbikes and started firing indiscriminately into the vehicle at James Town, near Korle Bu, Accra, killing the policeman on escort duty instantly.
The driver of the vehicle carrying the specie also sustained gunshot wounds and is currently on admission at the Police Hospital. A female teller on the bullion van is also at the same hospital, traumatised.
The suspected robbers made away with the policeman's weapon and also took a safe with an unspecified amount of money in it, after breaking the padlock at the rear of the pick-up truck, which had been converted into an improvised bullion van.
A bullion van, also known as an armoured cash transport car, is a van used to transport money from one location to another. The van usually has access control in place.
Operation
As part of the manhunt, the Accra Regional Police Command has blocked all major roads in the metropolis and peripheral roads, with a number of policemen deployed to man checkpoints at vantage points in pursuit of the perpetrators of the dastardly act.
The operation started a few minutes after the unidentified suspected robbers on three motorbikes attacked the improvised bullion van belonging to a wholly owned Ghanaian company, Mon-Tran Limited, which is used for the collection of daily sales from traders at Adedenpo, a suburb of James Town, near the Timber Market.
"This is the first time ever in Ghana that such a grand security operation is being carried out. We are pursuing a grand operation as we look out for the perpetrators of this heinous crime. We are also looking out for the booty," the Head of the Accra Regional Police Operations Unit, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Kwesi Ofori, said.
He said the police were on the lookout for a Haojin motorbike which was used by the suspects.
"We are checking all motorbikes. The operation will not affect the free movement of people and vehicles," he said.
About four hours into the operation, a number of motorbikes were impounded and their riders arrested.
ACP Mr Ofori said the police would pursue the suspects until they were arrested and urged the public to assist the police with information.
Regional Police Command
The bodies of the victims were initially conveyed to the Accra Regional Police Headquarters.
For about an hour, work at the headquarters was disrupted, as policemen came out of their offices to catch a glimpse of the bodies of the victims.
Many of them had their hands across their chests, with others shaking their heads or seen conversing in groups.
Information
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mrs Effia Tenge, said about 11:30 a.m. yesterday, the police received information that a bullion van had been attacked by suspected robbers.
"The police swiftly responded to the situation, and on-the-spot investigations indicated that the van was on a daily sales collection errand when it was attacked on reaching an area called Adedenpo, a suburb of James Town, by unidentified men on three motorbikes.
“They crossed the van and started firing indiscriminately," she said.
Mrs Tenge said apart from the two who died on the spot and the driver of the van who sustained a gunshot wound, two other women on the van escaped unhurt.
She said the police had since activated their intelligence and investigation machinery.
Mrs Tenge urged anyone with information in relation to the crime to call the Accra Regional Police Command, the police emergency lines or the nearest police station.
Crime scene
When the Daily Graphic visited the crime scene, crime scene experts from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) were busy on the ground processing the scene as part of police investigations.
They had cordoned off the area, while a number of residents and onlookers had thronged the place to satisfy their curiosity.
The crime scene experts picked fingerprints from the bullion van.
Background
Last Saturday, the police arrested a notorious waylaid robber who had thrown a boulder onto a vehicle on the GIMPA bypass and robbed the driver when he stopped to check on the windscreen.
On Wednesday, June 9, this year, two men wielding guns attacked a forex bureau at Osu, opposite the Ghana National Fire Service Headquarters, and made away with an unspecified amount of money.
The incident happened along the Ring Road Central about 3:30 p.m.
A number of people have also complained about thieves robbing them of their mobile phones and other belongings while in their vehicles at various locations across Accra and Tema.