2 Shot Dead In Daylight Robbery

TWO ARMED robbers, one of whom recently benefited from the �Justice for All Programme� by the Judicial Service in collaboration with the Attorney General�s Department, were gunned down by officers of the Accra Regional Police Command at Airport West when they attempted to rob a Chinese construction firm based at East Legon, Accra, of a sum of GH�10,000. Two surviving robbers- Patrick Ketor, 25, and Hamza Yakubu, 26- were arrested and are currently in detention at the cells of the Accra Central Police Station. The police retrieved from the scene, two locally-manufactured pistols, four spent cartridges and four live cartridges as well as the taxi cab which the miscreants used in the abortive robbery. The items are being kept as exhibits at the Regional Police Headquarters. The Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio Atinga said her men had gone after the robbers upon a tip-off a day before the purported robbery. On Friday July 22, 2011, her office had information that some armed robbers from the Accra Business District of Agbogbloshie were planning to attack and rob the said Chinese company located at East Legon of a colossal sum of money (GH�10,000) which was the weekly allowances for workers. Following the tip-off, the Regional Police Command dispatched officers in the early hours of Saturday, to ambush the suspected robbers near the company�s premises. No sooner had the police arrived than a Nissan March cabbie registered as GS 4978-09 with four men aboard, pulled-up around the company�s premises. Thereafter, one of the company�s engineers whose name was given as Li, arrived in a pick-up vehicle to pick another staff, a certain Wei, together with the money, to their construction site where payments would be made. The two took off with the money while the police watched the taxi trail them on their blind side. The police followed closely and when they got to the Airport Residential Area, the robbers crossed the pick-up that had the money and the two workers, amidst the firing of gunshots. Police therefore returned fire. In the ensuing crossfire, two of the robbers, known only as Razak and Abu aka Odogo, an ex-convict and a beneficiary of the Justice for All Programme respectively, were hit. The two lost their lives when they were being conveyed to the hospital, while two of their accomplices were arrested. The police chief said the money remained intact. Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE sources at Agbogbloshie have disclosed that Abu�s wife gave birth to a lovely baby the same morning he was gunned down. The sources claimed that when Abu was girding his loins for the robbery operation, his wife who was then in labour, was being rushed to a nearby clinic. When he was quizzed whether or not he was following up to the clinic, all he said was, �I am coming in a jiffy�, and left in haste. News of his death therefore came as a shock to the sprawling community of Agbogbloshie.