Suspected robbers held in custody, police hunts for more accomplices
Five suspects who were picked up by the Western Central Regional Police Command in connection with a robbery attack in Velotop Company Limited, a Chinese firm that deals in heavy-duty machinery, are currently in police custody assisting with investigations.
The Regional Police Command said the suspects based in Obuasi, went to Asankrangwa to commit the robbery with the help of an accomplice who lived in Asankrangwa, but currently on the run.
It said efforts were being made to arrest the leader and any other accomplices linked to the crime.
These were contained in a press statement signed by Assistant Superintendent of Police Beatrice Turkson, the Head of the Public Affairs Unit, Western Central Regional Police Command, Tarkwa, and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
The suspects: Issahaku Ibrahim, 42, Fatau Ali, 25, Yahaya Mumuni, 26, Emmanuel Antwi, 22, and Rashid Abdul 22, would be arraigned before court at the appropriate time, it added.
Preliminary investigations however, indicated that at about 1920 hours, on March 12, 2026, a group of armed men attacked the said company located at Malta, a suburb of Asankrangwa in the Wassa Amenfi West Municipality.
The suspects, armed with pump action guns, a pistol, and machetes, held workers of the company hostage and robbed them of cash in the sum of GH¢200, 000.00.
During the robbery, the suspects handcuffed three Chinese men, locked them in a room, and fled the scene in a black Toyota Voxy vehicle with registration number GS 576-25.
The statement added that when a police patrol team from Asankrangwa received information about the incident and moved swiftly to the scene, the suspects had already left, so they circulated the information to all the snap checkpoints within the jurisdiction.
It said the suspected vehicle was later seen on the Asankrangwa-Sefwi Bekwai road and intercepted by the police officers on duty at the Sumpre checkpoint.
The occupants attempted to flee from the vehicle, but were pursued by the officers at the barrier, and with support from the Asankrangwa patrol team Ibrahim, Ali, Mumuni and Antwi, were arrested, while Abdul was apprehended from his hideout the following day.
The statement further said two of the suspects managed to escape and efforts were underway to get them arrested.
A search conducted in the vehicle led to the retrieval of two pump-action guns, fourteen AA cartridges, one Bruni Mod 84 Cal 9 PAK pistol with a magazine loaded with eight rounds of ammunition.
There were also a machete, three mobile phones, two Closed-Circuit Television Camara decoders, three pairs of handcuffs and GH¢198,200.00 cash.
Source: GNA