Tabloid News of Monday, 23 May 2005

Source: --

MP Floors Robbers In Karate Style

Luck ran out on four dare-devil armed robbers when they were outsmarted by their victim, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame, and Majority Whip, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu whom they had targeted to rob.

The MP explained that he had gone to a drinking spot in Kumasi to meet his sister who operates a restaurant in the vicinity of Kumasi Sports Stadium. The MP who recently returned from the Philippines, as part of the Speaker's entourage, for a parliamentary conference, narrated that when he got to the spot, his sister had closed her shop and so he decided to cool it off with a bottle of Guinness stout at one of the other spots, when the robbers struck.

As he sipped his stout in a secluded portion of the spot, he continued, the young armed robbers suddenly approached in an attempt to rob him. Conjecturing that the pistols they were wielding could go off at any moment, he went on an offensive and luckily overpowered them in what he described as "quick action".

He said he saw the four young men pacing up and down and walked menacingly, toward the bar. They shouted, ?drop your phones", while they pointed their pistols at him. With the knowledge of martial arts, dating back to his secondary school days, according to the MP, his sixth sense told him to be on his feet, and with the dexterity of a cat, launched a counter-attack, which confounded the robbers and enabled him to escape death by a whisker. Sensing that the pistols pointed at him could go off at any moment, he quickly applied the service of his legs, by swiftly kicking one of the robbers, who was corking his fire arm in. He noted that as he took care of him, he moved his body round in a professional karate style and advanced towards the two other robbers, who were also pointing their pistols at him.

In the process, according to the MP, he gave the fourth robber who was behind him a side kick which dazed him and he run off. After kicking them, he remarked one of them screamed in pain, which attracted other people to the scene. Nobody however dared come close enough to be of any assistance for fear of losing their lives, he stated. After taking to their heels, he said the robbers started firing in the air to scare people. The majority chief whip expressed concerns about the security situation in the stadium area, especially since the lighting system was inadequate.

At the time of the attack, he maintained that the place was dark, providing a conducive cover for the hoodlums to launch their offensive.