was lynched at Ashaiman New Town
yesterday after he attempted to rob an
MTN sales point at gunpoint. He was in
the company of two others during the
robbery operation but he was not lucky,
as he was grabbed by an angry mob
and subsequently beaten and set on
fire. The robber, who gave his name as
Romeo, claimed to be a resident of
Kasoa Barrier in the Central Region.A
Nigerian gang member who resides at
Ashaiman Tulaku barrier, according to
the deceased, gave information about
the sales point. A security man, sales
personnel and a customer were held
hostage by the robbers at the sales
point, which had recently experienced
two separate robberies, with the
robbers taking away thousands of
Ghana Cedis. The robbers demanded
money and other valuables, while one
waited in a blue-black Toyota Corolla
saloon car in front of the sales point,
after they had entered the place at
about 8:30am under the pretext of
transacting business. Linda Asamoah, a
sales attendant, was in the inner
chamber of the sales point which had
been divided into two with glass. This
prevented the robbers from entering
where the money was being kept. Linda
made a quick phone call to a friend
nearby who promptly raised the alarm
which attracted the crowd. The driver
of the get-away car, sensing danger,
drove off, leaving his colleagues in the
office block, upon hearing the alarm.
However, one of the robbers managed
to jump on top of the bonnet of the
vehicle and fled with the driver.While
escaping, the driver fired shots, with a
bullet hitting a glass door of another
shop, Maranatha Photo and Barbering
Salon, near the scene. Luck however
eluded Romeo, who was not able to
catch up quickly with the vehicle, as he
was pursued by the mob after he took
to his heels from the sales point until
he was apprehended. Petrol Blaze He
was subjected to severe beatings with
clubs, metals, golf bats and cement
blocks among other implements before
finally being set ablaze and left to burn
in the middle of the street. Romeo,
however, managed to roll over his body
until the fire went out while bleeding
profusely, mostly from his head. The
incident attracted hundreds of persons
who thronged the scene to either
unleash their anger on the suspect or
catch a glimpse of the deceased after
he was killed. Linda Asamoah, the sales
girl, narrated to DAILY GUIDE: "I was at
the office when one robber came that
he wanted to receive mobile money
transfer and I told him the network was
down so he should go and return later."
According to her, another armed robber
came to join his colleague, pulled out a
pistol and quickly demanded money
and other items. On his part, Romeo
jumped over the counter after they had
locked themselves in one of the glass
apartments. She further narrated: "It
was when he was trying to open the
glass door to where we kept the money
that I called a friend who shouted 'thief,
thief' before the area boys came
around." Assistant Superintendent of
Police (ASP) Emmanuel Tetteh Yarkah
confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE,
and added that the police arrived to
find the lifeless body of the suspected
robber in a pool of blood. According to
him, the corpse had been conveyed to
the Police Hospital morgue in Accra for
possible identification, further
investigations and autopsy. He noted
that upon preliminary investigations,
the police retrieved a pistol and live
ammunition in a bag which was
abandoned on the street by the
deceased while he was running away
from the fuming mob. Ashaiman
Newtown and its environs are under
frequent siege by armed robbers,
putting the area youth under constant
alert
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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