Brother Joe Warden left his house at Mangoase, a suburb of Agona Swedru, at about 4.30 a.m on Monday, July 10, 2017 to hawk his wares around Winneba Junction and Winneba town.

He stood at the T-junction from Mangoase waiting for a vehicle to convey him to Winneba Junction. A taxi pulled up and Joe, as he was popularly known at Swedru, boarded it to his destination. He joined two others at the back seat as an old man occupied the front seat.

Just about some six kilometres from Swedru, precisely at Gomoa Osamkrom, a few metres from the Prisons Farm and down the hill, a Metro Mass Transit (MMT) bus from Accra had crossed the road and they thought it was faulty.

The old man suggested: “Why don’t you manoeuvre around the bus.”

The driver heeded the old man’s suggestion and just after they bypassed the bus, three people emerged wearing masks and one of them ordered, “Stop!!!”

The robbery

They began to suspect that they were in the hands of armed robbers. They panicked and prayed for their lives to be spared because there were many vehicles parked behind the MMT bus.

“Everybody come out,” an order from one of the three robbers who approached them, which they sheepishly obeyed.

Then came, “Surrender your phones,” which they obeyed.

“How much money do you have on you? Surrender them,” and everybody obeyed.

Joe gave up GH¢700 while GH¢500 was hidden somewhere in his attire. He received a hefty slap from one of the robbers and the GH¢500 was collected.

The driver tried to be stubborn because that week’s money had not been given to his car owner.

One robber used the butt of the AK47 to hit his cheek and blood oozed from his nose. He was about to be shot when the leader of the gang shouted, “Don’t kill. We are here for booty,” and the driver’s life was spared.

Then an order came again: “Everybody lie down,” which they obeyed. One of the masked men entered the taxi, conducted a meticulous search and took away their luggage which included Joe’s items which he hawked to earn a living for himself, wife and four children. Meanwhile, the occupants of the vehicles behind the MMT bus were also undergoing the same ordeal.

A police siren started blowing from Swedru towards them. The robbers frantically gathered their booty and bolted into a forest nearby as all the victims were still lying down.

The base

This life and death ordeal was narrated to me by Joe Warden two days after the nightmare at Chairman’s Base, which is also called Swedru Hyde Park.

At the base, we engage in serious political debates without rancour, take “tea”, gossip and joke among ourselves. However, your gossip must be the truth else you come under heavy fire by colleagues. You also don’t have to gossip about somebody in his or her absence.

After listening to Joe’s nightmarish experience, I asked myself: “How can this happen at the Swedru and Gomoa divisions of our able Police Service?” I know the Swedru Division has crack investigators and capable officers who can extricate us from the claws of these tormenting armed robbers.

So I asked myself again: “Could the seeming inaction of the service to rout the armed robbers be due to lack of essential logistics such as fuel for police patrol vehicles?”

Do I have to trust Supt Cephas Arthur, the former Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), who in the past always stoutly denied this allegation of lack of fuel for effective patrol by our police officers whenever it was made on air?

Inspector-General of Police, please do something before you retire. Please rout the armed robbers like we are now doing with “galamseyers”.

Do you empathise with victims of armed robbery, leaders past and present? This narration makes me remember the exploits of Commissioner Of Police (COP) Kofi Boakye in Accra and Kumasi. Remember Ataa Ayi?