The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada says efforts of the police to apprehend culprits in the recent killing of a cop, during the daylight attack on a bullion van on Monday, May 14, 2021, is likely to end fruitless.
He noted that the police only stand a 20 percent chance of arresting and prosecuting the robbers. “These robbers have an 80 percent chance of getting away with the crime and the police having only a 20 percent success rate of arresting them.”
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Nana Yaw Akwada argues that because of the lapses in intelligence gathering amongst the country’s security agencies, these criminals are likely to go scot-free, “especially as we have not heard anything after the incident. These robbers may have escaped the police’s proximity search by now.”
According to him, the policeman’s death could have been prevented if the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had refused to extend the escort services given to persons and organisations transporting such huge sums after reviewing their mode of transportation, and realising it was unsafe.
“The consideration that a fortified bullion van is expensive and waiting a year and a half to get all of them to upgrade to more efficient and armoured vehicles was wrong. Now because of this compromise, lives were lost and the police is also suffering bad press. Money can’t pay for the lives and integrity lost but they are the paramount things that need protection,” he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.
Background
The Accra Regional Police Command has blocked all major roads in the metropolis and peripheral roads in pursuit of a grand security operation in the Accra metropolis following the shooting of a policeman on a bullion van at James Town in Accra.
In line with the operation, police personnel have been deployed to man checkpoints at vantage points.
The operation started a few minutes after some yet to be identified suspected robbers on three motorbikes attacked a Man-tran bullion van, used for the collection of daily sales from traders at Adedenkpo in James Town.
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The robbers who are said to have fired indiscriminately, shot a policeman on escort duty and killed him, instantly.
A woman of about 30 years, who is yet to be identified was also shot and killed while she was in her shop.
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The driver of the bullion van also sustained gunshot wounds and is currently receiving treatment at the Police Hospital while a woman who is a teller on the bullion van has also been taken to the same hospital to be treated for trauma.
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The suspected robbers made away with the policeman’s weapon and also took a safe with an unspecified amount of money after breaking the padlock used to lock the rear of the bullion van.