SOME TRIGGER-happy robbers are currently on the run after they ambushed a bullion van in broad daylight and killed a 35-year-old bank cashier before escaping with two big boxes containing unspecified amount of money.
The hoodlums also injured two occupants, including a policeman, during the robbery.
The Toyota Hilux brand bullion van with registration GE 3978-20, being driven by one Antwi Boasiako of Agate Mabot Security Company Limited, was from the Manso Offinso Asaman direction and heading towards Kumasi at 2:30 p.m. on Friday when calamity struck.
Unknown to the driver and the other three passengers, including two armed policemen and a bank cashier, the bandits, numbering seven, who were wielding AK47 assault rifles and pump-action guns, had laid ambush on the road ostensibly to attack them.
Upon getting close to Manso Mem, the blood-thirsty hoodlums, without warning, just opened fire on the vehicle in a dangerous fashion that could be likened to a scene in a Hollywood movie, resulting in the death of the bank cashier identified as Attakorah.
The uncountable number of gunshots that were fired by the hoodlums also caused severe injuries to one Corporal Felix Agyei Agyeman and the driver, Antwi Boasiako, who was forced to stop the vehicle on the road as the robbers ransacked the bullion van.
The seven robbers, who wore face masks to hide their identity, then took away two big metal boxes believed to be containing huge amount of money and two AK47 assault rifles loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition from Corporal Agyeman and Sergeant Enoch Kwame Teye and fled through the bush.
Two in Critical Condition
According to a police report which DAILY GUIDE has sighted, the driver and Corporal Agyeman were initially rushed to the Saint Martin’s Catholic Hospital at Agroyesum for treatment, but they were referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital due to the severity of their injuries.
Sergeant Kwame Teye, on the other hand, was very lucky as he only sustained minor injuries during the fierce gun attack. He was treated and discharged same day and the body of the bank cashier is being preserved in the morgue for autopsy.
Wild Hunt for Robbers
The police report further said all the seven robbers managed to flee the crime scene with their booty as none of them had yet been arrested.
However, it disclosed that the police were making headway in their resolve to apprehend the robbers to face the law.
Some sources in the Ashanti Regional Police have disclosed that top crime scene investigators from the Ashanti Regional Police Headquarters in Kumasi were immediately dispatched to Manso Mem and the surrounding communities to hunt for the robbers.
The police report said the top investigators had already picked vital information from the crime scene which would definitely help them to smoke out the criminals from their hideouts.
Already police sources say some vital leads are being followed and they have found F5 BB empty shells and 12AK empty shells at the crime scene.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi