Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Augustine Gyennin, Ashanti Regional Police Commander, on Thursday called for the reining-in of locally-made arm manufacturers to help bring crime under control.
He said the soaring armed robbery threatening the security of law-abiding citizens was being fuelled by the production of locally-made arms and everything must be done to stop the producers.
DCOP Gyennin has, however, assured of police continuous protection and firm resolve to flush the small arm manufacturing business to enable the citizenry to live in peace, adding; “but this can never be achieved without public co-operation”.
The DCOP’s advice comes on the heels of the gunning down of an alleged Fulani robber by the Ashanti Regional police during a shoot-out on the dawn of Thursday, January 2, at Bonwire Junction and Juaben on the Bonwire- Effiduase stretch of road in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.
Briefing newsmen in Kumasi on the incident, DCOP Gyennin said the police, after receiving a distress call that the said robbers had mounted a road block, immediately rushed to the scene.
The alleged robbers, wielding locally-manufactured pistols, on seeing the police, engaged them in a gun battle and fled amid sporadic gunshots.
The police fiercely pursued them returning fire which killed the deceased, believed to be of Fulani descent.
Items retrieved from the crime scene were four used AA cartridges and a knife.
DCOP Gyennin, hinting on the new “modus operandi” of the robbers, said they had left the main trunk roads and were using the arterial roads to outwit unsuspecting travelers.
He said commuters on the Krofa-Agogo stretch of road in the Asante-Akim Central Municipality had been the latest victims of such robbery attacks and cautioned the public to be wary.
