Police Battle Armed Robbers At Galamsey Site

A fierce battle between a team of policemen detailed to intervene in an alleged robbery attack on some �galamsey� operators at Aduaneyede in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, on Saturday, left one of the policemen with a deep machete wound on the hand. The robbers also smashed the windscreen of the police vehicle, GP 2880. The 12-member gang was said to be armed with locally made pistols, machetes and other dangerous implements. The police succeeded in arresting four of them, one a Nigerian. A police source which confirmed the incident to the Ghanaian Times, named the suspects as Dodwin Aboa Kpoba, 25, Kwaku, 20, Salam Yusif, and Chike, 26, the Nigerian. They are currently in police custody at Obuasi, while the remaining eight, who managed to escape, are being sought for by the police. The source said that the police on Saturday, got information about the on-going robbery at Aduaneyede, noted for �galamsey� operations, and rushed there. According to the source, the robbers stormed the area under the pretext of being sent by an executive member of the �galamsey� association there and demanded that some of the operators handed over a quantity of gold they had in their custody to them. When the operators refused to oblige, the robbers threatened them with weapons. The operators resisted until the police arrived and battled the robbers, during which one of the police personnel sustained a deep cutlass wound while the windscreen of their vehicle was shattered.