The Ashanti Regional Police Command has announced a GHc5,000 package for persons who will help them find some suspected armed robbers who shot and killed a police officer in the region.
Corporal Frank Essel, a driver with the SWAT Unit at the Ashanti Regional Police Headquarters, was shot by armed robbers who stormed the Open Space Hotel at Denchemouso in Kumasi around 7:30pm on Thursday.
The robbers robbed victims of their valuables, shot and killed the police corporal and injured a male receptionist at the hotel.
The Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Tanko, told Citi News that the victims had told them that “the robbers ordered everybody to lie down and held them hostage and also instructed them to direct them to the rooms of the people who were lodging there. In the process, they shot one of the receptionists in the knee and he is now at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.”
He added that “according to the victims, a vehicle pulled up at the hotel and few minutes later they heard a gunshot.”
“When police inspected the place, they found a male person dead. When they inspected the body they realized that he was killed as a result of the gunshot wound that he sustained. Further checks indicate that he was a police officer with the SWAT team in Kumasi.”
He said, “currently we don’t know why he went there but we are sure investigations will be able to unravel all of that.”
A statement from the Ashanti Regional Police Command while urging the public to assist them with information for the arrest of the robbers, further assured that, they “will do everything possible to get these suspected armed robbers arrested.”
The statement also stated that, the case has been referred to the regional CID for further investigations and urged “the public to remain calm since the police is on the ground making sure that the perpetrators of the heinous crime are arrested and made to face the full rigors of the law.”
“The remains of the deceased Corporal, has been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue while the injured person is currently receiving treatment at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin