RESIDENTS of Kenkey Factory, a suburb of Koforidua, are living in fear following a series of attacks by armed robbers on some households recently.
Between 12.20 and 1.30 a.m. on September 2, 2008, two households were attacked by a seven-member armed robbery gang who did not only deprive their victims of their money and other personal belongings, but also subjected them to torture, burnt some of their belongings and threatened to rape the women.
The robbers, who were said to have strategically positioned themselves at vantage points, first attacked a 51-year-old electrician, Mr Samuel Yaw Sarpong, and his family at about 12.20 a.m. before moving to Mr Kofi Noye, a teacher, also aged 51, at about 1.30 a.m.
The robbers were reported to have bravely announced their presence with several gunshots and ordered their victims to open their doors for them to enter their houses.
When their victims failed to heed their call, they allegedly used blocks, a chisel and hacksaw blades to destroy their metal gates and wooden doors to the main halls.
The robbers, who did not appreciate the efforts made by their victims to be co-operative, used the butt of an AK47 assault rifle to hit the head of Mr Sarpong three times and struck the chest of Mr Noye with a hammer.
That was after the robbers had allegedly brutalised Messrs Sarpong and Noye and their wives and children.
Narrating his ordeal to the Daily Graphic in Koforidua at the weekend, Mr Sarpong said at about 12.20 a.m. last Saturday, he was woken up by his 27-year-old son, who was sleeping in the main hall, that some armed robbers had attacked their house.
He said the robbers, who were wielding AK 47 assault rifles, after breaking into the house, demanded that the couple should hand over any money in their possession.
According to Mr Sarpong, they gave out GH¢1,400 cash, a quantity of jewellery, four mobile phones, a wedding ring, a DVD player and a wrist watch.
He said not content with what they had, the robbers then hit his head three times with the butt of an AK 47 rifle and slapped him several times before leading him into a bedroom, where his two daughters aged 19 and 11 were sleeping
He stated that the robbers also asked my daughters to surrender their money and mobile phones.
According to Mr Boateng, his daughters, who were reluctant to obey their instruction, were subjected to severe beating by using the stick of a ceiling brush and threatened to rape them.
He said the robbers later locked up the entire family in a bathroom, took away the key and then gathered a number of items in the sitting room and burnt them.
Mr Sarpong said a thick smoke that engulfed the bathroom compelled him and the family to break the door of the bathroom and quenched the fire with buckets of water.
For his part, Mr Noye stated that he and his family were woken up by the persistent barking of his dogs at about 1.30 a.m. when five armed robbers wielding guns attacked them.
"The robbers responded with a gunshot any shout that I made from one room to the other for help and they angrily ordered me to open the door, since they had already arrived on the premises," he stated.
Mr Noye said when he realised that no help was coming from anywhere, one of his sons called his eldest brother in Accra who also called the emergency number of a police station in Accra who in turn called a police station in Koforidua.
According to him, for almost one-and-a-half hours, the robbers were chiselling and cutting the main metal gate to the house with a hammer, a chisel and a hacksaw blade and eventually succeeded in dislocating the gate after which they destroyed the main wooden gate to the house with blocks.
He said when the robbers entered the house they slapped him, his wife and sister several times before hitting him on the chest with a hammer.
Mr Noye stated that the robbers then ordered him to surrender any money he had in addition to his mobile phone, but after giving them some amount of money they were still dissatisfied so his wife came to his rescue by giving them another handset.
"They locked us up in the toilet and threatened to burn all of us as they did to our neighbours, but they abandoned that idea and escaped through a nearby cemetery," he stated.
According to him, it was when he was being taken to hospital for treatment by some of his children that he saw two policemen in a vehicle about 500 metres way from his house.
"When I enquired why it took them many hours to respond to our SOS call, they explained that their vehicles broke down," Mr Noye said, adding "if the police had responded quickly, they could have saved the situation."
Some of the residents, who expressed their worry about the rampant armed robberies in the area, in recent times, said the area once known for its serene atmosphere had now become vulnerable to robbery.
They, therefore, appealed to the police to intensify their operations in the area to curb such criminal activities.
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