Kumasi police gun down seven highway robbers
Seven suspected highway robbers — six of them believed to be Fulanis — were gunned down in two bloody encounters with policemen from the Ashanti Regional Command on Saturday.
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The regional command said the shootings constituted another significant step to rid the region of armed robbers.
Six of the robbers who were Fulanis were killed on the Anwiankwanta-Manso-Nkwanta road where they and others, now at large, had allegedly blocked the road to rob road users.
The other robber died on the Mampong-Ejura road where a gang of three were also robbing their victims.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) in charge of the Ashanti Region, Mr Augustine Gyening, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that “they (robbers) engaged us in gun battles and we got them”.
He said he would hold a press conference Monady to give details of the incidents.
However, DCOP Gyening stated that for some time, the police had been trailing the Fulani robbers.
On Saturday evening, he said, the police picked information that the robbers were undertaking an operation on the road.
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Armed police patrol teams moved to the area where they found the robbers who had blocked the road.
When the suspected robbers saw the police, they opened fire on them.
A gun battle ensued and in the process six of the robbers were shot and killed.
About four other robbers managed to escape into the bush.
The Fulanis who were killed were wearing charms and amulets, but the police removed them before their bodies were sent to the morgue at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
An amulet on the waist of one of the suspects who was wounded had to be removed before he died.
The police retrieved two AK 47 assault rifles, machetes, a pistol and ammunition from the robbers.
In the other incident, the police, acting on a tip-off, killed one robber who was among two others (now at large) who had blocked the Mampong-Ejura road robbing passengers.
On realising the approach of the police, the robbers fired at them and the police returned fire, killing one of them.
The identity of the deceased was not immediately known at the time of filing this report.
Story by Kwame Asare Boadu