Armed robbers pose as pastors

"Watch out! The preacherman in your hall could well be an armed robber spying on you to strike later on". This is the warning from the Police Administration following a series of armed robberies which suggest that the perpetrators these days pose as pastors and servants of the Lord who go from house to house, especially in the afternoons, ostensibly to share the Word of God with their unsuspecting victims.

Their activities are carried out mainly in residential areas where most people leave for work in the younger family relations to take care of the home. They normally succeed after they have become conversant with he area and the daily schedules of their victims. When they enter a house with a Bible in hand, the first thing that comes into the mind of their host is that "These" are righteous men". But you may be far from right.

Just last week, a group of these self-styled "men of God" raided a house at Ashalley Botwe, a new settlement close to Madina in Accra. According to the victims, a Togolese couple who recently came into the country from Togo, a day before the attack, three men came to preach to them in the afternoon.

In the course of preaching, it started drizzling and, therefore they invited the 'men of God' into their living room. In an interview with The Mirror, Oscar Agbeko said the way those men looked round the hall made him suspicious of their motives but his wife assured him that they were decent men.

After the rains had stopped, the "men of God" asked permission to leave and promised to return the next day to continue with the preaching. But at this point, Oscar said he told them he and his wife would go out of town the next day to visit some family relations.

The conmen, whose work seemed to have been made easier after that pronouncement, went away only to return the following day with a taxi, while Oscar and his wife were away, to raid the house. Some neighbours said two of the men who were armed, packed some items into the taxi and left while two others waited in the porch for their accomplices. The taxicab came back after 15 minutes to pack the rest of the items. It was then that some neighbours raised an alarm.

The armed robbers succeeded in fleeing. However, some of the neigbours identified them as people who normally came to the area to preach. This was later confirmed when Oscar and his wife returned to find their home ransacked. A Bible, apparently belonging to one of the preachermen was, however, left behind. The victims, who were scared of their lives, have since left for Togo.

In an interview, the Public Relations Director of the Police Service, Superintendent Angwubutogbe Awuni, cited another robbers who posed as preachermen around Dansoman. According to Superintendent Awuni, those 'preacher men' had gone around the area early in the morning and wanted to enter a house but the watchman turned them away. After an hour, they returned and claimed that they wanted to give some money to the master of the house, but he did not give them the chance to enter the house.

Later, these same men went back for the third time fully armed to raid the house, but they were all arrested and sent to the Odorkor Police. A similar incident also occurred at Agyirigonno, a settlement close to East Legon, a suburb of Accra. According to the victims who pleaded anonymity for the sake of their lives, some, unknown people led by some two young women visited their house on 20 April to share the word of God with them one afternoon.

While they were engrossed in the preaching, they heard some unusual noise behind their house. Consequently, they dashed there to see what was happening only to find out that their lawn mower and a generator were nowhere to be found.

When they looked over the wall, they found some armed men putting the two equipment into a taxicab some few metres away from the house. They, therefore, shouted for help, but before neigbours could come out, they found the two young women running towards the taxicab, which sped away together with the armed men.

Superintendent Awuni cautioned the public to look out for such criminals and report them to the police. He further called on the police to be careful when dealing with people who claim to be men of God since some may not be faithful and trustworthy. "People should endeavour not to entertain strangers and visitors in their homes since they would end up becoming victims of such criminals," he added.