GUNMEN opened fire on a bullion van on the Ashaiman-Nungua stretch in broad daylight yesterday, killing a policeman on board the van and injuring three others in the process.
The gunmen then fled in a Toyota Hilux pick-up with an amount of GH¢2,859 they grabbed from the van which, according to the police, was being used to collect money at various cash collecting points on behalf of the Tema branch of the HFC Bank and was heading towards Sakumono when it was attacked.
The fleeing robbers were encountered by the Stopper Eight Patrol Unit from the Accra Regional Police Command on the Spintex Road where there was a heavy exchange of fire between the robbers and the unit.
According to the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, the policemen were restrained by the presence of a crowd which massed up at the action zone when they heard of the gun fire and the suspected robbers took advantage of the crowd to escape.
He used the occasion to advise civilians to stay away from combat zones when violent criminals engaged the law enforcement agencies.
He said the Toyota vehicle being used by the armed robbers was abandoned, together with one pump action gun and an AK 47 rifle which they took from the police officer they had earlier shot and killed at Ashaiman.
ACP Yohuno said the vehicle, with registration number GT 1325-09, had been snatched from its owner at Tema Community 11 the previous day but when it was abandoned by the robbers on the Spintex Road, the number had been replaced with a fake one, GW 2966 Z.
The injured persons at the Ashaiman end of the incident were an official of the HFC Bank, who was also on board the bullion van, and two passengers on a 207 Benz bus which was caught in the line of fire. They are currently on admission at the Tema General Hospital.
The suspected robbers struck about 12:30 p.m. and shortly after that members of the Buffalo Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command arrived on the scene.
According to the police, a cash collection team from the bank which was on cash collection rounds in the Tema metropolis found a road blocked with logs when its bullion van got to the underground bridge at Klagon near Ashaiman.
According to members of the Buffalo Unit, when the driver of the bullion van slowed down, the robbers, who had taken vantage positions near the bridge, opened fire on the van, killing the police escort, Lance Corporal Amos Nkrumah, 29.
Corporal Nkrumah was hit in the neck and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Darbem Hospital in Ashaiman.
A second shot hit the lady official of the bank whose name was not immediately disclosed.
The police said after the second shot, the robbers started shooting into the air to disperse other motorists plying the route. Stray bullets from the indiscriminate shooting hit two passengers in a 207 Benz bus on the road, injuring them.
The driver of the van, however, escaped unhurt.
The Tema Regional Police Commander, ACP Augustine Gyening, told the Daily Graphic that he was yet to obtain a full briefing on the Ashaiman incident from his investigators.
No comments:
Post a Comment