• The robbers failed to get the car to stop despite the multiple gunfires

• The money was being transported from the Ordokor Zenith Bank Branch to its Winneba branch

It has been revealed that the gunmen who attacked a bullion van travelling from Odorkor towards Winneba on Thursday, June 17, 2021, would have made away with a whopping GH¢550,000 had they been successful in the heist.

In an interview sighted by GhanaWeb, DSP Osei Fofie who is the Gomoa Dominase District Police Commander disclosed that the GH¢550,000 which was being transported in the bullion van with registration number GN-6956-17 belong to Zenith Bank.

According to the Police Commander, the van which was transporting the said money to Winneba upon reaching between Potsin and Okyereko was attacked by the armed gang of robbers who unleashed gunshots on the van.

According to reports, the vehicle had three persons on board including a police officer, Sgt. Frank Agyemang; Alfred Aidoo, the driver and Martinson Odei Gyebi a staff of the bank.

The 3 people were able to manoeuvre through the gunshots when the gunmen opened fire on the vehicle.

Whiles the vehicle was under intense gunfire, the Police officer placed an SOS call following which a nearby patrol team was dispatched to the area.

The robbers having missed their booty, fled into a nearby bush before the arrival of the police team.

“The Police in Winneba escorted the bullion van back to Odorkor branch of Zenith bank so all passengers escaped unhurt and the money in the van remained intact,” the DSP said.

Photos of the attacked bullion van sighted by GhanaWeb shows the vehicle took multiple hits during the attack, including one that penetrated the window of the front passenger seat even though its occupants escaped unhurt.

This failed bullion van robbery attack comes just three days after a similar one staged at Adedenkpo, a suburb of Jamestown in Accra left two persons dead.

The robbers in the Adedenkpo heist successfully made away with an undisclosed cash sum after their attack which left behind three casualties.

While the driver of the bullion van was left with injuries in the attack, General Constable Emmanuel Osei – the police officer who was on escort duty in the van and one Madam Grace Afua Amankwa – a trader in the neighborhood died from gunshots.

Two bank tellers in the car however survived the attack unharmed, albeit traumatized.

The operation team also included personnel from the Ghana Police Service and the Forestry Commission.

The suspects, who are from Tamale in the Northern Region. are Dagbe Ernest Suglo, 27, and Napoba Alareku, 27.

Addressing the press after the arrest, DCE Woode said even before the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Jinapor, declared forest reserves and water bodies as red zones, the Assembly had already teamed up with the Forestry Commission at Betenase to sensitize all and sundry on the dangers of illegal mining and advised them to protect the forest.

He continued “but to our dismay, we had information that the illegal miners had pitched camp in the area with five sprinter buses and were even fighting among themselves”.

The DCE further stated that they had tried on several occasions to clamp down on their activities but to no avail, since they no more used excavators but have adopted the metal detector system, which is mostly complicated and becomes very difficult for their operations to be noticed.

He continued that the miners upon getting wind of the presence of the operation team, fled, leaving their machines behind while luck ran out on two of their colleagues who were immediately apprehended by the police.

LOGISTICS FOR FORESTRY GUARDS

Mr Jonas Woode appealed to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to provide logistics for the Forestry Commission to enable them crackdown on activities of the illegal miners who, he said, have adopted sophisticated methods to carry out their activities.

The Assistant District Manager at the Bekwai office of the Forestry Commission, Palmer Amponsah, praised the DCE for his unwavering efforts to stop illegal mining in his District.

He mentioned that though the Commission is doing its best to stop the activities of illegal miners, their numbers are too small.

He called on the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to provide them with logistics judging from the new approaches adopted by the galamseyers.

“Since the use of excavators by galamseyers has almost come to a halt, they have adopted the use of metal detectors which look like bags. This is very difficult to detect.”

ASP Mahama Iddrisu, who is in charge of Operations at the Obuasi Divisional Command, debunked the notion that the police find it difficult to prosecute galamseyers.

He opined that the police need hard-core evidence to successfully prosecute illegal miners.

ASP Mahama Iddrisu, a former prosecutor, said “the major challenge we face in the prosecution of illegal miners is the absence of hardcore evidence in some instances. The court will always set the accused free if the evidence found against him is not strong enough”.