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Residents of Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, are living in fear, following bloody attacks by unidentified gangsters in recent times. Just last Saturday, a group of suspected armed robbers shot and killed the nephew of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Frederick Fredua Anto at a popular drinking spot at Dichemso, a suburb of Kumasi. Prince Blankson Opoku Anto, 29, was at the Jack City drinking spot relaxing around 11:00pm when the suspected robbers who wielded sophisticated weapons, stormed the place, asking everybody to surrender whatever they had on them. In the course of the robbery, Opoku Anto was shot in the head, and he died instantly. The incident happened just a few days after a suspected supporter of the NPP was killed in broad daylight at Ash Town, a suburb of Kumasi. So far no arrest had been made. The heightened insecurity prompted an emergency meeting of all security chiefs in the country at the Flagstaff House on Friday. Unfortunately, a day after the meeting, the gangsters struck again in Kumasi, where they killed the Regional NPP chief�s nephew at the drinking spot. The robbers then robbed mobile phones and money of the people present including the deceased and fled with their booty. A female attendant at the drinking spot suffered some facial injuries after one of the robbers hit her forehead with the butt of a gun, before taking away the sales for the day. Police were called to the scene later but the robbers had by then vanished into thin air. The body of the deceased was then taken to the morgue for autopsy. The death of Opoku Anto brought to three the number of people that had been killed in Kumasi in less than a week through gunshots. Two other people were shot and killed at Ash Town on Wednesday. This spate of gunshot killings at public places had suddenly created fear and panic among residents of the Garden City. No Politics The family of the deceased Opoku Anto told DAILY GUIDE at their Dichemso home on Sunday afternoon that they did not suspect any political motive in the death of their kinsman. �Perhaps he defied the stern order of the hoodlums to surrender a flashy mobile phone which was in his possession and this might have cost him his life,� said Felicia Adiyia, an auntie of the deceased. She said eyewitness accounts indicated that the robbers who were about five in number, were all wearing black attires when they besieged the drinking spot and started robbing people of their valuables. Madam Adiyia said she was asleep when the police stormed their Dichemso home around 2:30am on Sunday with the lifeless body of Opoku, which was eventually identified by the family. According to her, the body was then taken to the Emena Hospital morgue for autopsy, lamenting that the sudden death of the young man was a big blow to the family. Mr. Anto stressed he was convinced that the matter was purely a robbery case, stressing, �I don�t suspect any political motive in the death of my nephew at Dichemso on Saturday.� He said people in the city were not aware that Opoku Anto was his nephew, so the death could not be tied to a political motive. The NPP Chairman however lambasted the police for not being in control of the security situation in the city, a development which had led to the killing of innocent people. Mr. Anto noted that the visible policing which was the modus operandi of the police, was not helping matters, tasking the police to quickly resort to intelligence policing to help avert crime which was on the ascendancy in the city. He said Kumasi was not safe to live in, stressing that it appeared the police and the other security agencies were rapidly losing the battle against crime. Mr. Anto wondered why a lot of civilians were now in possession of unregistered guns. He disclosed that most of the crimes were being committed by teenagers. He suggested that the laws of the country be amended so that young people that would flout the laws could be dealt with so as to serve as deterrent to others. GH�2,000 Ransom Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Police Command has promised to give a GH�2,000 reward to anyone who would give them information leading to the arrest of the suspects in the latest crime at Dichemso. In a release authored by ASP Yussif Mohammed Tanko, the police stated emphatically that the Dichemso shooting was criminal in nature which had nothing to do with politics. The police said the robbers wore masks to hide their faces and that they stormed the Jack City Drinking spot around 11:30pm. He said the robbers had in their possession locally manufactured guns and they started robbing mobile phones and money of the people at the place immediately they entered the spot. The release said one of the robbers was rasta-haired, appealing to the public to feed the police with the needed information. Special Forces Following the breakdown of law and order, the Police administration in Accra had sent a team of Special Forces to Kumasi to beef up security. Credible information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicated that the team left Accra Sunday evening. The main task of the Special Forces would be to help lower the crime rate in Kumasi and nearby places. The security situation in Kumasi had suffered a major setback in recent times, with gangsters virtually taking over the city. The police headquarters had realized the police in the region were gradually losing the fight against crime, a police source hinted. He said the police reinforcement team from Accra had been trained to detect crime from afar so they could tackle it swiftly. The source said the reinforcement team would be mainly made up of policemen that wear plain clothes. Their presence in Kumasi is geared towards helping lift the image of the police which had been dented by criminal activities in the area. The reinforcement team�s presence would also help restore the public�s lost confidence in the police in the region. The source could not state the exact period for which the reinforcement team would stay in Kumasi. He however suspected the Special Forces would stay in the city till the security situation improves.