Robbers attack passengers on Asamang-Effiduase road
Highway robbers struck on the Asamang-Effiduase road in the Ashanti Region at dawn yesterday, making away with cash running into thousands of cedis and mobile phones of passengers.
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Most of the victims were traders who were on their way to Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region to conduct their businesses.
The road, which is in a bad shape, is one of the dangerous ones in the region.
Eyewitnesses who spoke to the Daily Graphic said about three vehicles were attacked, but the police could not confirm that.
The police, however, said they had mounted a search for the robbers.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Samuel Appiah, the Effiduase Divisional Police Commander, told the Daily Graphic on phone that when his men went to the area, the robbers had escaped.
Some of the victims narrated the ordeal they went through at the hands of the armed men.
A driver who gave his name only as Osei said in an interview at Effiduase that he was driving a passenger vehicle from Asamang towards Effiduase. On reaching a point near Adagya about 5.30 a.m., he saw a barricade mounted by some armed men, some of them brandishing guns.
The men stopped the vehicle and ordered everyone on board to come down.
“They asked me to hand over all the money I had on me, but I told them I had nothing. They searched me and had some few coins and they became angry. One of them suggested that they kill me,” he said.
According to the driver, one of the men opposed the suggestion and that saved his life.
Another passenger, who gave his name only as Yusif, said all the passengers were made to lie down on the road for the men to be searched.
He said one gunshot was fired to scare the passengers.
The men later escaped through the nearby bush before the police were called in.
According to ACP Appiah, his men could have saved the situation if information on the attack had reached the police earlier.
Nonetheless, he promised that everything would be done to track the suspects. He appealed to anyone with information on the whereabouts of the robbers to volunteer it to the police.
By Kwame Asare Boadu/Daily Graphic/Ghana
