Police fooled as armed robbers have field day

Three suspected armed robbers yesterday gave false information to the Police Information Room in Accra to divert a police patrol team to a location about six kilometres away from the robbery scene and succeeded in embarking on a robbery spree at Adenta.
One of the victims of the robbery was critically wounded as the gunmen attacked four houses in succession and escaped with their booty before the arrival of the patrol team.
The victim is in critical condition at the 37 Military Hospital. The incident, which took place at Adenta Housing Down at about 1.30 a.m., had three armed• robbers calling the police under the pretext of giving them information on another armed robbery going on at Ashale-Botwe, which is about six kilometres from the area of operation.

In response to the wrong information to the Police Information Room, three separate patrol teams were dispatched to comb the Ashale-Dotwe area thereby giving the robbers the leeway to scale walls and attack their victims at gunpoint.
They repeated their act in three houses before being confronted by the victim of the gunshot in the fourth house.
The robbers took away laptops, unspecified amounts of' cash, digital cameras and several mobile phones from the three houses.
The victim was said to have challenged the armed robbers, who got infuriated and shot him in the chest.

The Adenta District Police Commander, DSP Stephen K. Ahiatafu, who confirmed the' incident to the Daily Graphic, said a police officer on duty at the Adenta District Police Station heard the gunshot and called the local patrol team, which was then at Ashide-Botwe.
He said when the -patrol team got to the scene the armed robbers had left, leaving the victim in a pool of blood.
He said the same group had been involved in a similar operation on May 12, 2010, during which they robbed a house in ¬the'same community.

DSP Ahiatafu said even though the district was well resourced with men to deal with armed robbery, lack of information from residents was not helping -the situation.
"The situation we find ourselves in is that when aimed robbers attack, instead of residents calling the police for help, the residents leave the victims of the robberies to their fate," he said.
He, therefore, appealed to residents of the area to get acquainted with police ¬emergency numbers, which he gave as 0302-773906 and 0302-787373.
He said armed robbery in the area had reduced drastically because the - patrol team had been very active, adding, "The armed robbers have realised this and outwitted us with the false alarm."

Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana