The robbers, wielding two pump action guns and clubs, blocked the road just after the sharp curve from Mamfe on the Akuapem Mountains, with trees, and carried out their nefarious activity.
They stopped all on-coming vehicles and subjected the occupants to beatings before robbing them of their laptops, phones, digital cameras and money.
They were able to rob occupants in two passenger cars and three private ones. A timely intervention by the Akropong police, after a distress call reached them, prevented the miscreants from robbing many more people. Drivers who got wind of the robbery either stopped and parked their cars along the road to wait for police action or returned to where they were coming from.
Briefing Daily Guide about the incident, the Akropong Divisional Crime Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Tony Adippah said the distress call got to them around 11.00pm and they had to organize men to quickly rush to the scene; but before they got there, policemen at the Akuapem Saforo road checkpoint had been alerted and rushed there.
He said the robbers, upon seeing the police, vanished into the bush while shooting indiscriminately to ward off police attack. According to ASP Addipah, he suspected the robbers might have come from the Akwapem area because they were able to detect that the police were patrolling the Adukrom-Koforidua road and not the Mamfe-Koforidua.
ASP Addipah said due to lack of patrol vehicles, the police patrol team at Akropong had been alternating between the two roads which lead to the Akwapem area and to Accra and Somanya respectively.
According to the crime officer, the robbers managed to use a known footpath in the area to run away. “The Mamfe-Koforidua road has been a safer road and with this incident we are going to change our strategy in patrolling these two major roads in the Akwapem area,” he said.
He however asked travellers and motorists not to entertain any fear or panic since patrol on that stretch of the road would be intensified. According to ASP Addipah, the police had intensified their search for the robbers, adding that all those who were beaten and were able to report to the police had been given police medical form to go to the hospital.
Daily Guide learnt that the driver of a VW Jetta saloon car, who was identified as Mensah Otabil, was severely beaten and was currently on admission at a Koforidua hospital.
Read the rest here: