POLICE MISTAKE INFORMANTS FOR ARMED ROBBERS (PAGE 24)

THE conduct by some police officers who were detailed to pursue armed robbers on the Kintampo-Tamale highway nearly claimed the lives of an accountant and his family who volunteered information on the activities of the robbers.
The Good Samaritan and his family miraculously escaped death by the hair’s breadth after incessant firing of guns at them by the police in the bush where the family had been trapped for about 20 minutes.
The police officers, who were detailed to pursue the robbers, rather mistook the informants who had parked their car by the roadside and sought refuge in the bush to escape the wrath of the robbers, and fired several times at them.
Narrating his agonising experience to the Daily Graphic in Tamale, the accountant who works with a motor company in Kumasi, Alhaji Mahama Alhassan Somuah described their escape from death as amazing and thanked God for saving their lives.
According to him, he was on his way back to his duty post in Kumasi from Tamale with his wife and their 14-year-old son when the incident occurred on April 26, this year.
He said while on the journey at about 5:15 p.m., he noticed that a passenger bus had parked at the Sawaba Junction near Buipe and while they drew closer, they heard gun shots from the direction of the parked vehicle.
Alhaji Somuah said on reaching the spot, they saw that the occupants of the parked vehicle were all lying down on the road.
“Realising that armed robbers had attacked the passengers, I exclaimed and sped off”, Alhaji Somuah stated.
According to him, after driving close to two kilometres away from the robbery spot, they again noticed a vehicle parked from the opposite direction ahead of them.
“Our immediate conclusion was that another group of armed robbers had attacked us again. To save our lives, we had to park our vehicle and take cover in a nearby bush as I made frantic efforts to contact the police to come to our rescue”, he stated.
“Thirty minutes after our contact with the police, we sighted a police vehicle drawing closer to where we had parked our vehicle. The sigh of relief soon gave way to a nightmarish experience,” Alhaji Somuah said.
He said on arrival at the scene, the police opened fire in the bush where they were seeking refuge, adding that he had to make several calls to a friend in Tamale to contact the police to impress upon them to cease fire.
“Close to 20 minutes, they fired at us. My innocent son picked five pellets that missed him as we were also lucky to have survived the attack while lying prostrate on the ground,” the accountant stated.
Alhaji Somuah said following information relayed to their police “attackers” by his counterpart in Tamale, they were eventually ordered to come out.
“The police later explained that they decided to fire at us on their arrival because they mistook us for the armed robbers and that their suspicion was re-affirmed as they saw our vehicle parked by the roadside”, he added.