The deplorable road
Some commercial drivers and passengers who travel on the Juaboso-Asawinso road in the Western North Region are complaining about the incessant robbery attacks to the deplorable state of the road.
The recent robbery attack occurred last Wednesday dawn when some armed men accosted some commercial vehicles and robbed the passengers of their valuables and cash.
Some of the victims told journalists that because of the deplorable nature of the road, drivers had to take their time to traverse it, particularly in the evenings and early mornings, so the robbers had taken advantage of the situation to attack them always.
A farmer, who claimed to have witnessed the recent incident, narrated that he was on his way back home on a motor bike and on reaching that stretch of road, he saw some people wearing black attire with nose masks and holding guns, “so I thought they were policemen.”
“On getting close to them, I realised they were not policemen, but armed robbers. And I saw them ordering some passengers to lie on the floor.
“At that moment, I turned to run away. Then I heard gunshots so I left my motor bike on the road and went to hide myself in a nearby bush,” he said.
According to the farmer, he later called a friend who told him that he had also heard about the attack and wanted to find out whether he (the farmer) was ok.
The Police Commander in the area, Supt Samuel Ntosoh, also told journalists that the police had a tip-off early in the morning that some suspected armed robbers were in the middle of the road robbing people.
“It was at dawn when people started calling us that there was a robbery attack on the highway, in the middle of Juaboso-Nkwanta-Asawinso highway,” he said.
He said he went to the scene with some of his policemen but upon reaching there they only saw a motor bike on the road.
“We looked into the bush for any signal but did not see anybody,” he explained
According to him, in the afternoon of the same day, the police had a call that there’s another robbery going on on the same stretch of road.
He by the time they got there again the robbers had fled
He therefore appealed to authorities to get the road fixed to reduce the incessant robbery attacks on passengers and drivers in the area.
“There are lots of potholes on the road, so when cars get there, they are not able to speed. And there is a forest on the road so the robbers use it as a hide-out to perpetrate their heinous crimes,” he said.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi