Armed Robbers Storm President Mills� Neighbourhood

Residents of the Regimanuel Gray Estates near the Spintex Road are reportedly living in fear following an armed robbery incident in the area last Tuesday evening. The robbers attacked two separate houses less than 100 meters from the private residence of President John Evans Atta Mills, with property worth millions of Ghana cedis belonging to the occupants of the two houses carried away. Some of the victims were also injured in the process. Citi News sources say the victims are seriously traumatized following the incident. This latest incident could strengthen calls for tighter security around the president�s residence. There has been a huge uproar in recent weeks over the conditions surrounding a decision to provide improved shelter for security personnel assigned to guard the house. The proposed three-bedroom house is to provide a permanent structure to house the security personnel who live in tents and answer nature�s call in portable mobile toilets while on duty. In the midst of the brouhaha, the opposition NPP repeated its call on the president to move into the Flagstaff House, built and renamed Jubilee House and designed to serve as the official residence and office of the President. The party believes the edifice is more secure and would address the security challenges at the president�s Regimanuel Estates residence. However, National Security Coordinator Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (Rtd) believes the Flagstaff House is not secure enough for the President. Commenting on the robbery, NPP National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey told listeners of Citi FM�s Eye Witness News of August 25, 2011 that the attack was a manifestation of the Mills-Mahama government�s failure to provide adequate security for the ordinary citizens of Ghana, especially if robbers were brave enough to undertake such a deed so close to the president�s house. �The President�s residence was not subject to attack by armed robbers. What this has brought to the fore is the need to make sure that the citizens of Ghana are secure from armed robbery. It is those persons who suffered the robbery to whom our hearts reach out and to whom our sympathies go. All of us need to be protected from the menace of what is the destruction of the tranquility and the peacefulness of this country.�