The violent streak of highway robbers in the country goes unabated as a soldier becomes the latest victim of supposed armed robbery attacks that has become rampant in the past couple of years in the country.
The 40-year-old Sgt. Odei Job Kwame was killed on the Prang-Kintampo road in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region around 9 pm on Friday, May 21, 2021.
The soldier is reported to have sustained gunshot wounds during a shootout with the robbers when he reportedly bumped into the gang of robbers on an operation in the vicinity.
DSP Eric Awiadem, the Yeji District Police Commander, who confirmed the story in an interview monitored by Whatsup News, said “the officer who was in uniform met an ongoing robbery incident. The robbers, upon spotting the military officer, sensed danger and asked him to step down from his car. He complied, but they beat him up mercilessly before some of them suggested that they kill him”.
According to DSP Awiadem, “He pleaded with them and in the process, he decided to run away, they chased him, caught him and eventually, one of them shot and killed him before they fled into the Bush.”
The mortally wounded soldier was rushed to the St. Mattias hospital in Yeji where he was pronounced dead.
His body has since been deposited at the Hospital’s morgue.
This is the second similar incident in the area after a renowned Muslim Cleric was shot and killed on the Abromase road near Yeji in March this year.
It is believed that these emboldened armed robbers have been fuelled by the unprecedented influx of weapons into the country recently, and particularly some few months before the 2020 general elections.