Suhum, Sept. 27, GNA - The Landlords and Tenants Association at Suhum has appealed to the Police Administration to take the necessary steps to check the high rate of armed robbery in Suhum and its surrounding suburbs.

Making the appeal through the Ghana News Agency at an emergency meeting of the association at Suhum on Sunday, the Chairman of the Association, Mr Christian C. Henaku expressed worry about the spate of armed robbery in the area and the inability of the security agencies to arrest the culprits.

He said if measures were not put in place to combat the crime, many residents of Suhum would be forced to abandon their homes. Mr Henaku recalled that within two weeks, three petrol filling stations, eleven houses, two Pastors, two Chiefs, a nurse and some national service personnel were attacked and robbed of various sums of money and personal effects running into millions of cedis. He said the worrying aspect was that, after the robbery, the victims, more often, were assaulted and the robbers at times took turns to rape the women. Mr Henaku said the robbers, who are mostly young, are believed to be residing at a hide- out at Suhum, from where they emerge to attack people in the night.

Mr Emmanuel Ofori, a member of the association, said on September 18 this year, armed robbers attacked the manager and the producer of Major Sachet Water Limited, Nana Kwaku Addo, the second, who is the Ankobiahene of Akuapem Mampong, and made away with all the day's sales. The robbers later attacked Reverend Samuel Osae Djan of the Church of Pentecost, Reverend Offei Ansah of the Presbyterian Church- Ghana, Mr Kingsford Pobbe, a businessman and made away with millions of cedis, after assaulting the household. Mr Ofori said the lukewarm attitude of the police to distress calls from victims under attack from robbers must stop. He said anytime the armed robbers attacked their victims, and the police were alerted they refuse to respond to the calls, and only invite the victims the next day to give their statements, without any effort to apprehend the robbers. The police however told the GNA that their inability to check the armed robbery was due to the lack of vehicles to patrol the town in the night and appealed for assistance, whiles urging the various communities to form neighbourhood watch committees to help check the robbery. 27 Sept. 09