Ho, Sept 27, GNA - Armed robbers early Monday night waylaid market women returning to Ho from Mafi-Kumasi market and robbed them of their monies and other valuables.

The robbers, whose dialect gave them off as Fulanis, barricaded the road with two logs near a culvert, some seven kilometers from Ho. Emmanuel Gollo, the driver of the vehicle with registration number GR 7274 H, told Mr Isaac Kodobisah, Ho Municipal Chief Executive and a team of detectives at the Ho Municipal Hospital where the victims had gone for treatment that the incident happened at about 1900 hours. He said he was driving slowly towards Ho, guided by the head lights of two motor bikes, because of an electrical fault his vehicle had developed. Mr Gollo said he encountered the obstruction and stopped and the robbers charged at them.

The robbers first smashed the windscreen, pulled him out, hit him at the back of his head with a stick, searched and took all monies in his pocket and on the dashboard. Mr Gollo said while this was going on, the other robbers pulled out th= e mainly women passengers from the vehicle, roughly searched and robbed them. He said a gun was put to the ear of one of the women passengers who resisted and was told to surrender all valuables on her or be shot. Mr Gollo told the Police there was a heavily turbaned passenger on the vehicle making calls repeatedly in low tone, during the journey but could not be traced during the attack. Mr Mawuli Gollo, 26, brother of Emmanuel Gollo, the driver, said he came on a motorbike in answer to his brother's call to bring an auto-electrician to work on the vehicle. He said while riding ahead of his brother (driver) two men by the road attempted obstructing him. He swerved out of their way but hit the logs and fell. He said he resisted the robbers, hitting them with his helmet and escaped to alert the Police.

Mawuli and his pillion rider sustained knee and ankle injuries. Mr Nelson Agbodza, a nearby community leader, told the GNA that he was alerted by gunshots and screams. He said similar robberies had occurred in the area and that the criminals could be Fulanis operating kraals in the area. Mr Isaac Kodobisah, who cancelled scheduled assignments to visit the crime scene in the company of Mr Samuel Owusu-Berko Municipal Police Commander, said he would bring the issue up for discussion.