TWO WOMEN CLAIM TO BE ROBBERS (PAGE 31)

TWO women from Asuofia near Barekese in the Ashanti Region, who were arrested with a man in a robbery case on June 1, this year, have made a startling revelation to the police.
They reportedly told the police that the “operation” during which they were arrested was not the first time they were involved in snatching a vehicle at gunpoint.
Akua Dufie, 22, and Afia Akyaa, 18, had told the police that they were engaged in a similar robbery with their gang in Kumasi on May 28, 2008, and used the vehicle for various robbery operations at Tarkwa.
Dufie and Akyaa were arrested together with another suspect, Kwaku Antwi, at Adumasa in the Ashanti Region after they and two others now at large robbed a driver, Peter Obeng, of his KIA pride taxi.
The police have mounted a search for the runaway suspects, one of whom was identified only as Emma.
Inspector Yusif Mohammed Tanko, the officer in charge of Public Relations at the Ashanti Regional Police Directorate, told the Daily Graphic that Antwi received machete wounds from his captors who chased them into the bush.
He said on June 1, the gang devised a strategy to snatch a taxi, to enable them to rob people of their mobile phones and other personal belongings.
They, therefore, left their base at Asuofia to Sofoline in Kumasi where they arranged with a driver to convey the sick mother of one of them from Pakyi to the Santasi Hospital.
Inspector Tanko stated that on they way to Pakyi however, the suspects told the driver that the supposed sick woman was at Adumasa located on a branch road, and not Pakyi.
The driver agreed to take them to Adumasa and again on reaching the town they told him to proceed further.
On the outskirts of the town, the driver apparently sensing danger refused to continue the journey and stopped the vehicle but one of them pulled a gun asking him to surrender the key to the vehicle.
Inspector Tanko further said the driver handed over the key to them but the one who went to the steering wheel found it difficult to move the car.
The driver had then raised an alarm and the townsmen mobilised themselves to arrest the robbers.
Sensing danger, the three arrested suspects ran into the bush while the two others managed to drive the car away.
The townspeople chased the three into the bush to arrest them and handed them over to the police.
The taxi was later found abandoned on the road.
It was after their arrest that the two women revealed that their gang robbed another taxi on May 28, which they used for numerous robbery operations in the Tarkwa area.