Kumasi, November 23, GNA - A 45-year-old police Sergeant was shot de= ad by a group of suspected armed robbers on the dawn of Tuesday on the Effiduase-Kumawu road when he drove through a road block they had mounted= .. Sergeant Reuben Akakpo, a photographer with the Ashanti Regional CID, wa= s on his way to visit his nucleus family based at Effiduase when he met his=

untimely death. This is the second time a policeman has been killed by armed robbers= in the region this year. Briefing the media, Chief Inspector Yussif Mohammed Tanko, Public Affairs Officer, Ashanti Regional Police Command, said the deceased who h= ad been transferred from Effiduase to Kumasi two years ago but had not been able to move his family to his present station due to lack of accommodati= on, a situation that has necessitated regular week-end visits. Chief Inspector Tanko said according to eye witness, a husband was sendi= ng his sick wife to the hospital in an Opel Astra taxi cab with the trading number GW 4303 S at about 02:30 am when they chanced upon the road block where the armed robbers ordered the driver to stop, opened the door and forcibly brought out the occupants and asked them to lie down on the road=

robbing them of their phones, cash and other valuables. About ten minutes later, Sergeant Akakpo in his BMW salon car with registration number GT 4343 T in plain clothes driving at a terrific spee= d, sped through the barricade damaging his vehicle. The vehicle stopped abruptly in the process and he was also ordered by t= he gang to come out of it and whilst coming out, he was shot on the right shoulder and ribs. He was robbed of his mobile phone and other belongings when groaning= in pain, the robbers left him to his fate and bolted in the taxi cab belongi= ng to their first victims.

Sergeant Akakpo could not be sent to the hospital since there was no vehicle so he died. Meanwhile, the driver and the couple managed later to go to the Effiduas= e Police and made a report. The body of the deceased has since been deposited at KATH for autopsy bu= t no arrest has been made. The Public Affairs Officer has stated categorically that the decease= d was not on duty as was being speculated by the public and has therefore m= ade a passionate appeal to the public to assist the police to bring the kille= rs to book.