A police officer, who was shot and injured with multiple wounds by highway robbers at Ashieam on the Techiman -Sunyani highway in the Bono Region, is currently battling for his life at the Sunyani Teaching hospital.
The police officer identified as Samuel Attitsogbe was shot together with the driver of a sprinter bus with registration number Aw 62-110-14, on which he was escorting traders from Buipe in the Northern.
The robbers, numbering about ten and wielding guns, machetes, and other implements, were said to have shot the escort in the chest and right wrist, disarming him of his weapon, while the driver, Bright Fordjour, was allegedly shot at the neck and right shoulder, before robbing their victims.
The police officer and the driver managed to escape into the bush leaving the passengers behind.
The driver has, however, been treated and discharged as the time of our visit to the Sunyani Teaching hospital.
This robbery incident is the second in two weeks in January this year on the same highway in the region.
The Head of Accident and Emergency and Trauma and orthopedic of the Sunyani Teaching hodspital, Dr Hanson Ayum Larnyo, confirmed the story to the Ghanaian Times here in Sunyani yesterday
He said Samuel Attitsogbe received pellets from the gunshots at his chest with his right wrist competely damaged, adding that he lost several pints of blood through the injuries he sustained.
He said the police officer managed to escape into the bush to save his life.
According to Dr Ayum Larnyo, they have retrieved the pellets from the chest through first surgery conducted on him and indicated that his condition was currently stable.
The victim (Samuel Attitsogbe) declined to speak to the Ghanaian Times at the hospital, indicating that unless his superiors grant him the go ahead.
Madam Christiana Opoku, a passenger on board the sprinter bus told the Ghanaian Times that the highway robbers had laid ambush at Ayibey, Community near Ashieam, on that stretch of the road to rob their victims.
According to her they had stopped an earlier sprinter bus and robbed their victims when their bus bump into their activities.
She narrated that the robbers ordered the passengers to come out from the bus and surrender their belonging which they made away with.
The valuables stolen by the robbers included mobile phones, and cash amount to the tune of more than GH¢70, 000.00
Ms Christiana Opoku told the Ghanaian Times that the robbers opened fire at the police escort, injuring him during exchange of fire, before robbing the their victims.
The passengers, she said, were 22 in number on board the sprinter bus with registration number Aw 62-110-14 but cannot tell that of the earlier sprinter bus.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI
