THE EASTERN Regional police command on Wednesday gunned down a 28-year-old Fulani herdsman suspected to be an armed robber, while four other suspects – Divine Zanu, 23, Benjamin Lodo,17, Andrew Zanu, 25 and Mawuli Zanu, 24 – were arrested, detained in police custody and assisting in investigation.
The body of the deceased, who was among a gang of suspected notorious highway robbers that had allegedly been terrorizing passengers on the Nsawam stretch of the Accra-Kumasi road, has been deposited at the Accra Police Hospital for autopsy.
Briefing DAILY GUIDE, the Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Yeboah Nketiah, hinted that the suspected armed robbers had been ambushing vehicles at night and robbing passengers of their possessions at gunpoint.
According to him, the suspects were those who recently attacked Mr Kwasi Agyemang Gyan-Tutu, MP for Tain constituency in the Brong-Ahafo Region, ransacked his Nissan Patrol with registration number GT 8803-14 and took away GH¢5,300.00 and his traveling bags, when he stopped at Sign-Board, near Nsawam, waiting for his cousin.
ASP Yeboah Nketiah disclosed that the police intensified petrol duties on the highway, and on Wednesday at about 12:14 am, got to where the suspects were hiding. He said they (suspected robbers) threw an object at the police vehicle and when it stopped, the robbers pulled guns at them but they (police) returned fire, injuring one of the suspects.
He was rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
ASP Nketiah asserted that the police, after depositing the robber’s body at the mortuary, came back to the scene at 4am and met two young men namely, Benjamin Lodo and a Rasta man (Devine Zenu), who were said to be discussing the specific sequence of the encounter.
The police invited them but they took to their heels. They were chased and arrested, according to ASP Nketiah. Andrew Zenu was also later arrested. Upon a search, nine unserviceable mobile telephones without sim cards, two masks, a quantity of dry leaves suspected to be Indian hemp and Tigo and Artel sim cards were found on the suspects.
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