Three suspects have been identified as members of a gang of highway robbers who shot and killed a 48-year-old Warrant Officer of the Ghana Armed Forces and a civilian at Osubeto, near Nyame Bekyere along the Koforidua-Mamfe road.
The suspects, Ernest Amago Kudji, 32; Seth Kofi Tawiah Deno, 31, and Kwame Add, 38, were identified by 11 victims of the highway robbery at an identification parade at the Eastern Regional Police Command in Koforidua Wednesday.
The suspects were among eight men who were lined up for the victims and three policemen from the Akropong Police Division to identify.
According to the policemen from Akropong, the three were part of a gang of highway armed robbers who had exchanged fire with a police patrol team along the Mamfe-Koforidua road this year.
The suspects were allowed to stand in the identification parade, together with some workers at the Police Command, and most of the victims walked straight and pointed fingers at the suspects.
Two of the suspects, Kudji and Add, were arrested by a police patrol team from Koforidua about 9.30 p.m. on June 3, 2012 following a tip off by residents of Tinkong, a farming community also near Nyame Bekyere.
Deno was reportedly arrested in a nearby bush, with five mobile phones, by a combined team of armed policemen from Koforidua, Akropong and Accra who had rushed to the scene of the robbery on May 28, 2012.
Briefing graphic.com.gh, the Eastern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Edward Konyel, said the residents tipped off the police when they became suspicious of the behaviour of the three suspects in the area.
The parade attracted a large gathering of curious residents of Koforidua who went to the Eastern Regional Police Command to catch glimpses of the suspects.
On May 28, 2012, four highway robbers blocked a section of the Koforidua-Mamfe road at Osubeto, near Nyame Bekyere, and robbed passengers of a number of vehicles.
They allegedly shot Warrant Officer Class One Frederick Cudjoe Amoako and Obeng Owusu-Ansah, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries.
WOI Amoako, who was in military gear and sat in the front seat of an Accra-bound Nissan Hiace bus, and Owusu-Ansah, a well-known man in Koforidua who was driving his BMW X3 series vehicle, were both shot in the right eyes.
Owusu-Ansah is alleged to have challenged the armed robbers when they asked him to pull over.
The robbers are reported to have used firewood to block the road and succeeded in robbing three vehicles, including those being used by WOI Amoako and Owusu-Ansah, about 8 p.m.
When the Accra-bound Toyota Hiace, with registration number GN 2843 Z, arrived at the place where the road had been blocked, the robbers shot WOI Amoako in the right eye on seeing him in military uniform.
The driver of the bus, however, managed to drive through the road block and sped to the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital where WOI Amoako was pronounced dead on arrival.
The police patrol team from Koforidua was tipped off about the incident and it rushed to the scene, where it found Owusu-Ansah dead in his BMW four-wheel drive vehicle.
The patrol team then called for reinforcement from Akropong and Accra and when they combed the bush, they arrested Deno.
The three were remanded by a Circuit Court in Koforidua to reappear on June 28, 2012.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
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