Highway robbers attack passengers on Nkwanta-Hohoe road

Nkwanta, June 7, GNA- Highway robbers, numbering seven and including a female, attacked and robbed passengers on board four Nkwanta- bound buses and made away with mobile phones, cash, digital cameras and personal effects, running into millions of cedis. The incident, which took place on Wednesday, June 3, was the second in three months.

Four of the robbers were masked and wielding offensive weapons including machetes. They barricaded a portion of the road with logs, in a sharp curve, which is about seven kilometres to Nkwanta on the Hohoe-Nkwanta stretch.

Mr Douglas Kumah, Nkwanta District Police Commander, who briefed the Ghana News Agency, said a commuter in a pick-up vehicle, swerved the robbers and reported the incident to the Police at about 0230 hours. He said the robbers fled into the bush when a team of policemen got to the scene.

The commander said the Police pursued the robbers who scaled seven mountains and crossed rivers to the Togo border. Mr Kumah said there was indication that they had entered the neighbouring country.

He said Police found in their trail, money, two live cartridges and one used cartridge, bags with personal effect, compact discs, spoilt mobile phones and chips.

He said no arrest had been made yet, but investigations had been intensified, while the Togolese security officials had been informed to be on high alert for the marauding robbers. Mr Kumah appealed to mobile telephony companies to bridge the communication gap along that stretch of road to forestall future occurrences.

He urged victims of such attacks to report to the Police, explaining that only three out of the affected passengers gave testimonies to the Police.

Iddrisu Abdul Razak and Evans Kuffour, drivers of two of the buses, who narrated their ordeal, said their buses pulled up at the spot at about midnight, where the robbers ordered them to alight and were thoroughly searched in turns.

The passengers were ordered to lie on the floor face down, after they had been robbed. They said what worsened their susceptibility was the unavailability of telephony network at that portion of the road, which was exploited by the robbers.