Police foil highway robbery near Savelugu

Police in the Northern Region have appealed to health facilities, herbalists and individuals in the region, to report anybody who comes to them with gunshots wounds for treatment to the nearest police station.

This follows a shootout between the police and some suspected armed robbers, numbering about six in the early hours of Thursday near the Savelugu School for the Deaf on the Tamale -Walewale highway.

The robbers who had mounted a road block at a section of the highway at Gbanyali near the Savelugu School for the Deaf on seeing the police, opened fire on the police and they (police) also returned fire, which the police believed, might have resulted in some of the robbers sustaining gunshot wounds.

The robbers were said to have fled into nearby bushes during the gunshot exchanges.  

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Northern Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr. Mohammed Yusif Tanko, who made known this to the media in Tamale on today (Thursday, June 27, 2019), appealed to residents of communities around Savelugu and its environs to be on the lookout for strangers and suspicious persons in their communities and report same to the police.

DSP Tanko said the robbers who fled into the bush also left behind three motorbikes which is in the custody of the police and therefore appealed to the public to assist the police to trace the owners.

Mr. Tanko in a brief said the police on June 27, 2019 at about 2 a.m received information that some armed robbers had blocked the road at Gbanyali near the Savelugu School for the Deaf on the Tamale-Walewale highway to rob passengers on board vehicles that plied that route.

He said officers at police check-points on the road were informed to deal with the issue, which they (police officers) responded quickly.

According to him, when the police got to the scene, the robbers numbering about six had lined up vehicles and were about to rob them.

He said the robbers opened fire on the police and the police returned fire and pursued the fleeing robbers into the bushes.

In the event, the robbers abandoned three motorbikes at the scene.

DSP Tanko added that the police have also launched a manhunt to arrest the suspected robbers.