The Mamponteng District Police Command in the Kwabre East District of the Ashanti Region has apprehended a gang of suspected highway robbers who robbed passengers of their money and cellular phones on Thursday at about 2am on the Mamponteng – Adwumakaase-Kese road.

The all-male robbers, numbering about six, used an Isuzu Pick-up vehicle registered GE 459- 09, which they seized, to block the road before dispossessing the passengers, mostly market women, of their money and phones.

The alleged hoodlums, believed to be Fulanis, were armed with locally-made guns and knives and subjected a number of the victims, including a pregnant woman, to severe beatings. A driver named Ofori Boateng was stabbed in the thigh.

The suspects are Abdul Rashid, 35; Abubakar Adam, 41; Moro Muhammed, 38; Dawda Abdulai, 25; Bello Moro, 23 and Nusir Sulley, 15.

They were identified during an identification parade organised by the police early Thursday morning as part of their investigations.

Superintendent Julius Kpeberson, the Mamponteng District Police Commander, who briefed DAILY GUIDE, said his men rushed the injured persons to the Mamponteng Government Hospital for medical attention while the rest were brought to the police station to assist in investigations.

According to him, at about 2pm on Thursday, May 14, 2015, his command received a distress call that armed robbers had blocked the Mamponteng – Adwumakaase-Kese road and were terrorising passengers.

Police quickly responded to the call and spotted the Pick-up vehicle and a TD Urvan bus, registered AS 1058 – 15, parked at the crime scene with a lot of fear-stricken passengers.

Acting on suspicion, the district commander said, the police raided a Fulani base in the locality to conduct a search, which led to the arrest of nine suspects and the retrieval of a crowbar and machete in their possession.

Superintendent Kpeberson said six of the suspects were identified as members of the alleged robbery gang and added that they would be processed for court.