Koforidua, Sept. 18, GNA - A gang of masked armed robbers on Saturday night raided the Koforidua Adweso GOIL filing station robbing the owners of more than 27 million cedis cash at gun point.

Five suspects arrested for the attack are helping the police in their investigations. The attack is reported to be the third raid on fuel stations in the Koforidua municipality in recent weeks. The booty for the marauding gang, included 20 million cedis of petroleum product sales, two million cedis sales from the station's supermarket and five million cedis being cash held by the station's manager and her daughter.

Briefing the media at Koforidua on Monday, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr Felix Asare-Darko said the Police had received several distressed calls around 1900 hours on that Saturday about the attack.

He said by the time a platoon of policemen, including himself and other senior officers got to the scene, the robbers had already succeeding in taking their booty and bolted into the nearby bush, firing warning shots intermittently to scare patrons and others who might attempt foiling the attack.

ACP. Asare-Darko said, at least three, suspects involved in the raid launched the operation around 1830 hours by using their guns to coerce the staff of the station into submission before mopping up the booty.

He said the gang, pointing their guns at the manager and her daughter, requested for the entire day's sales but the manager told them almost all the sales had already been dispatched for safe keeping elsewhere.

Thereafter, the robbers ransacked the safes and took what they could lay hands on amidst firing of warning shots and later fled into the bush.

ACP Asare-Darko said a mounted search in the area by the police culminated in the initial arrest of the five suspects while efforts were being made to apprehend all others connected with the event. He assured residents of the region, especially the business community, that the police were in firm control of the security situation but encouraged the public to share crime information with the police to prevent any future occurrences of such events.