Cape Coast Tuesday, March 29, 2005 -- ARMED ROBBERS, in the early hours of Sunday, invaded Cape Coast, robbing and assaulting their victims in the wake of the Easter celebrations.
The robbers had stormed Third Ridge, a suburb in the municipality and robbed one Mr Amofa, the Proprietor of the Morning Star Preparatory School and made away with money and other items.
They attacked as well, Mr Godfred Okyere, an employee of the Sunyani branch of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who had visited his wife.
Mr. Manu, a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and his security were not spared this same ordeal in the same vicinity.
As if that was not enough, the robbers moved to Adisadel, also a suburb of the municipality and attacked Mr Adu Yeboah, a former legislator.
Mr Godfred Okyere told this reporter on his hospital bed at the Central Regional Hospital (Interbeton) where he is receiving medication yesterday that at about 2:30 am on Sunday, he heard someone knocking on the door. He said, he thought it was his brother- in- law. He therefore opened it only for about five men to quickly enter the room, asking them to dole out any amount they had. According to him, in the process, one of them hit his head with a club, which opened a deep cut on the head. He said another hit him with a stick in the face, injuring the left eye.
Okyere, who was visiting his wife during the Easter celebrations, said he fell unconscious and could not see what happened thereafter. However, he maintained that his wife told him that the robbers had bolted with jewelry and some monies belonging to the brother-in-law.
Awudu Mamah, a worker at the Parks and Gardens who is also a security person to Mr Manu, a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), told the paper at the same hospital that the robbers numbered about eight, attacked them at about 2:00 am on Sunday. With a swollen mouth, which made it difficult for him to talk, Awudu Mamah who had sustained various injuries said the robbers quickly ransacked his master?s room, demanding dollars from the lecturer who told them he had none.
According to Awudu, the robbers threatened to kill the lecturer if he did not show them where he had kept the dollars, as it seemed he had returned from abroad.
The UCC lecturer who refused to speak to the Press after Professor Addow Obeng, the Vice Chancellor and the Pro-Vice Chancellor had paid him a visit to ascertain his health situation at the regional hospital while this reporter was present, had earlier said he had lived in the Third Ridge for the past six years without any robbery. However, he reiterated that the area had become dangerous in the past two years.
He said the robbers held him to ransom for about 20 minutes, while he feared they might drive his new car that he had bought just about two months earlier, away. ?It is horrible,? he told the visiting Vice chancellor.
Mr. Manu was severely injured in the right hand while his leg was swollen after it had been hit with a stick.
Mr Amofa has since been treated and discharged from the regional hospital.
An eyewitness account says the police were alerted while the robberies were taking place but they replied that their vehicles were patrolling Mankessim and its environs. The Police therefore arrived at the scene only after the robbers had left.
Meanwhile, the crime officer and other junior ranks at the regional police headquarters insisted that they were not allowed to speak to the Press and no high ranking official was around to comment on the issue because it was a public holiday.