Koforidua, May 24, GNA - Kofi Owusu, 21, a suspected armed robber, is in the grips of the Eastern Regional Police Service to assist in the arrest of his accomplices who could not be apprehended in a police raid. Briefing the Ghana News Agency in Koforidua on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kwabena Gyamera-Yeboah, Regional Commander, said at about 0300 hours on Tuesday, a Nissan Micra Taxi Cab with registration number GT 6036-10 with three persons on board arrived at a police check point around COCOBOD on the Suhum-Koforidua Road.

He said the taxi was moving towards Koforidua and when the police on duty asked the driver to stop, he refused and sped off. ACP Gyamera-Yeboah said the police men chased the taxi and saw it abandoned by the suspected armed robbers near the Oyinka Hotel in Koforidua. He said they found two locally manufactured pistols, a machete, a mask, two life cartridges, three mobile phones and other items in the car. "Later=85 personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit indicated they knew the driver of the car and so traced and=85 arrested Owusu, at Adweso," he said.

ACP Gyamera-Yeboah said Owusu claimed he gave the car to a friend, whom he identified only as JJ, at 0400 on Tuesday who claimed he was travelling with it to Accra.

"If he gave the car to his friend at 0400 and the incident happened at 0300, then it means he either has something to hide or he was the one driving the car but he is still denying." ACP Gyamera-Yeboah indicated that if the driver was still claiming innocence, then he was only being asked to assist the police in its investigations to get the three persons who escaped arrest. He called on the public to assist the police to apprehend the culprits, saying, any information received would be treated as confidential.