Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, 15 August 2006

Source: The Sun

Armed Robbers On Rampage At Sowutown

THE RESIDENTS of Sowutuom and Race Course, suburbs of Accra have been living under state of fear in the last one month, following rampant operations of armed robbers in the area.

Some opinion leaders in the neighbourhood suburbs have therefore appealed to the security agents to come to their aid and clamp down on the reckless activities of notorious armed robbers who seem to have laid siege in the area.

“We don’t feel comfortable due to the rampant attacks on the residents in our area,” Mr. K.B. Jones, told The Sun when making a passionate appeal to the Minister for National Security through the paper.

The Sun gathered that at least armed robbers have striked in the area more than six houses at Sowutuom and Race Course area since the beginning of last month.

It all started when Pastor Samuel Gasu, of the Sowutuom branch of Light House Chapel International (LHCI)was attacked in his house after church service. In the process, he was shot twice but survived with God's intervention. However, his house was ransacked. Pastor Gasu was later rushed to 37 military hospital where the pellets of the gunshots were removed.

As if that was not enough, few days later, another resident an owner of a popular internet café was attacked. That same week the armed robbers striked again when they invaded a house and ransacked it and later used cutlass to shave a young lady’s hair because she refused to hand over her mobile phone to them when they later spotted it at her underwear. Only last week a woman was attacked and killed when she was reportedly syringed with substance believed to be acid.

The paper gathered that before that incident the lady had made pronouncement in a trotro in that very night to the effect that armed robbers should not be allowed to live when arrested to create problems for the society.

Apart from these there are pockets of cases recorded in the area which have left much to be desired.-The sun