The Police have gunned down a suspect in the last Monday Takoradi Market Circle daylight robbery during a gunfight with the suspects in their hideout.
The intelligence-based operation involved senior police officers from Accra and Takoradi.
When the police squad descended on the robbers’ hideout in Elmina, along the Cape Coast Takoradi Road in the Central Region, they found a tortoise, a talisman, a live and spent rounds of AK 47 assault rifle and arrested one suspect.
According to a police source, at about 8pm last Wednesday, the Western Regional Crime Officers together with the Divisional Crime Officers at Takoradi Division and Accra Regional CID Operations locked in on the hideout of the robbers.
In the shootout which ensued, the police source added a certain suspect, Shankiki, aged about 30, was gunned down as two others escaped on a motorbike.
Recovered from the hideout was a blue motorbike with registration number M-20 GW 6060. The last zero on the number plate, it was discovered by the police, was covered with a sticker, making it therefore read M-20 GW 606.
During a routine search of the hideout, police found one live AK 47 ammunition and a spent ammunition of a similar grade, a live tortoise and a talisman.
A certain Inusah Fuseini, aged 25, found at the scene, was arrested to assist in investigations.
The body of the deceased has been conveyed to the Police Hospital morgue for preservation as efforts are being made to track down the other suspects on the run.
Earlier, the Western Regional Security Council had placed a GH¢10,000 bounty on the robbers whose brazen robbery of a 61-year-old man and his wife at Amanful in Takoradi, which also led to the gunning down of the man, attracted headlines.
The victim, Charles Kwakyie, and his wife Monica Nda, who had gone to withdraw some money from a bank, were trailed by the robbers on two unregistered motorcycles after the transaction.
The couple was attacked by the armed robbers in broad daylight and in the full glare of bystanders before bolting with their booty.
A press conference was quickly organised during which the Regional Security Council announced a GH¢10,000 bounty.
The Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Felix Fosu-Agyemang, had announced at the press conference that they were on a manhunt for six armed robbers who committed the crime.
The couple was in the country from Switzerland to monitor their building project. The wife of the deceased, who suffered injuries during the robbery attack, is recovering in a hospital.
The robbers made away with 6,000 CFA, 50 Euro, 80 Swiss Francs and GH¢12,700.
RCC
Meanwhile, the Western Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) in a statement commiserated with the bereaved family.
It said it was very unfortunate that the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis within a week has experienced three reported armed robbery incidents, which has left one person dead and two others with gunshot wounds.
The statement, signed by the Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, said the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) had met and discussed measures to enhance security in the metropolis and the region as a whole.
“Already, the police together with other sister security agencies are working around the clock in order to apprehend the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” it added.
It said police visibility would be increased at vantage points and random police checks on motorbikes, vehicles/passengers on all roads would be intensified.
“To complement the effort of the security agencies, REGSEC is also appealing to the public to volunteer credible information to the police, and also report any suspicious characters of criminal intent, in order to help fight crime,” it indicated.
By A.R. Gomda & Emmanuel Opoku