A man believed to be in his late thirties 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.
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