Reports from Graphic Online reveal that a pastor has been apprehended in connection with an attempted robbery attack around Enchi in the Western Region. The armed robbery attempt was perpetrated by a gang of seven men out of which one was shot dead during their combat with the police, 3 arrested and three others still at large.
The robbers armed with pump action guns in the early hours of Monday April 10, 2017, laid an ambush for some Chinese gold miners. Their action was based on a tip off which revealed that the Chinese miners would pass that route on their way from the bank with huge sums of money supposedly meant for the payment of their workers’ salaries.
But the gang met their waterloo when they mistook a white unbranded police van passing that way on a night patrol at their ‘expected’ hour, for the Chinese miners. On descending on their supposed prey – the miners, they landed in the hands of the police who engaged them in a fierce gunfire, killing one of their members, taking hold of two, while four others fled.
The two arrested men – Augustine Kwame and Kofi Abanga, later led the police to the Gyasikrom village near Enchi, where one of the escaped four, one Samuel Atongo was receiving treatments from Isaac Twumasi, the head pastor and founder of Blessing of Christ Ministry at Gyasikrom, who although he did not join the robbery attack, is an accomplice. The police met Pastor Twumasi nursing the wounds of Atongo which he sustained from a gunshot.
Also See: Two Police Officers in Robbery Gang Arrested in Central Region!
The Enchi District Police Commander, Superintendent Raymond Kofi Erzuah told Graphic Online that it was the three men on the run, that carried the wounded Samuel Atongo to Pastor Twumasi who prepared a herbal concoction to treat him. He said that it was with the help of Custom officers at Sewuam in Enchi and that of the neighborhood watch committee members, the police were able to locate the hiding place of Atongo and Pastor Twumasi.
Superintendent Erzuah said the arrested armed robbery suspects confessed that they took the police vehicle for one of the leaders of Chinese miners who was supposed to be returning from the bank with money around that same time the police got there. According to them, the miners should be returning from the bank in their preparation to vacate their operations. They claimed that their information was that the money was to be used to pay workers of the Chinese miners.
The armed robbery suspects currently in the custody of the police are 20-year-old Augustine Kwame, an illegal miner; 24-year-old Kofi Abanga, a farmer; 22-year-old Samuel Atongo, also an illegal miner and Pastor Twumasi.
The police have however mounted a manhunt for the remaining three whose names were given as Andrews Boama, Joe Joe and Peter Adu. So far, photographs of Andrews have been retrieved by the police, from the houses of the already arrested suspects.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.