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A day after the armed robbers who allegedly shot and killed a soldier and an official of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) were paraded at the Eastern regional police headquarters and their pictures published, many residents of the Eastern regional capital, Koforidua, have expressed shock at the involvement of the �guys� in the robbery attack since two of them are popular faces in the town. WOI Frederick Cudjoe Amoako, a serving military officer and Kwabena Owusu-Ansah, the project coordinator of NBSSI in the Eastern Region and a known member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were shot in the head by the suspects at Nsuobeto, on the Koforidua-Mamfe road on the evening of Sunday, May 27 at separate times. Most residents of Koforidua had identified 31-year-old Seth Kofi Tawiah, one of the robbers, as a very �popular guy� at Koforidua, while the main architect of the robbery, 32-year-old Ernest Amago Kudji, had lived all his life at Koforidua Anlo Town until he relocated to Aflao after he was arrested in connection with a robbery in 2005 and later released. He was said to be a motorbike repairer, a very good motor rider and a �hardened� criminal. The third suspect, Samuel Kwame Addo from Tinkong, near Koforidua, who was identified as the one who shot the soldier, was said to be a very good marksman. Some residents and friends of Owusu-Ansah said yesterday after the publication that Seth Tawiah, a day after the robbery incident, was seen at Ben Bow, a popular drinking spot at Koforidua, where friends had gathered to ponder over the sudden demise of Owusu-Ansah. He was said to be �parroting� a lot about the death and even seen commiserating with the known friends of Owusu-Ansah. They were arrested at Tinkong upon a tip-off when the suspects had gathered on the evening to have dinner together. When the identification parade took place on Wednesday, a large crowd besieged the police headquarters, eager to see the �killers� of Owusu-Ansah, a very affable and generous man at Koforidua. Police had a hectic time trying to control the crowd. Owusu-Ansah was once a research analyst at the Danquah Institute and was said to have led some youth activists of the NPP to monitor the 2000 and 2008 general elections in the Volta Region where they suffered abuses. A very close friend of Owusu-Ansah and the regional youth organiser of the party, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, said he was happy Owusu-Ansah�s killers had been arrested but said the police could have averted the situation if they had responded to the �SOS� calls earlier. �We learnt the police got to the scene quite late after the robbers had left and they even had to hire a taxi to go to the spot,� he said. He wondered why the police administration was keeping 180 brand new vehicles including 60 pick-ups at the police headquarters while the regional police lacked patrol cars to do effective patrolling on the roads. �The country is in a state of insecurity and we are all not safe. The earlier the president addresses this state of insecurity, the better,� he said.