Another Bus Robbery In Bolgatanga

Armed robbers on Saturday morning August 6, attacked a Metro Mass Transit (MMT) bus conveying students of the St. Francis Girls Senior High School at Jirapa in the Upper West Region. The students, on holidays, were travelling to the Upper East Regional capital Bolgatanga. The gun-wielding robbers molested and assaulted some of the students and crew on board. Citi News� Upper East Regional Correspondent, Agana Bawa, who spoke to some of the students upon their arrival in Bolgatanga, said they appeared traumatized. The Conductor of the bus which had set off from Wa said they were attacked on a bridge on river Sisile in the Basisah community, where their monies, mobile phones and other belongings were taken away after some of the students had been beaten mercilessly and left with injuries. �A lot happened. We even lost some of our luggage. They stole some of our things inside the boot. We really lost a lot of things� she narrated. Recounting her ordeal, one of the female students, said they were originally scheduled to travel to Bolgatanga on Friday August 5, but their bus got stacked around Sisala West. She said the MP for Sisala West came to their aid and offered them accommodation in his house to sleep over so they could continue the journey the next day. She said the MP later arranged a bus for the trip and they set off around 4:00am on Saturday, only to be attacked as they approached Bolgatanga. She said the robbers, about five of them including juveniles, pulled all of them out of the bus and took away their monies and cell phones after a thorough search and severe beatings. �Some of us even lost our NHIS cards. Some of us were canned. And some of us too were also hurt because they slapped some of us� she said. Meanwhile, Police in Bolgatanga have arrested 15 Fulanis including four juveniles believed to have committed the crime. The suspects will be paraded latest by Monday for the victims to identify those culpable. The suspects were picked up at Basisah, the community where the robbery occurred. This is the second of such robbery attacks on a bus in less than two weeks. In the first incident, four buses were also attacked by robbers and its occupants robbed of possessions and cash on the Tamale � Bolgatanga highway.