Two friends were shot and killed by armed robbers who attacked and robbed a mobile money vendor at Welembelle in the Sissala East Municipality.
Mr Jonas Dimah, the Assembly member of the Welembelle Electoral area, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that at about 1900 hours on Saturday, four armed men stormed a mobile money joint at Sukparibelle, a suburb of Welembelle and took away an unspecified amount of money amid sporadic gun fire.
He said all the people at the scene were asked to lie down before their money was taken away from them at gunpoint.
According to him, after the robbery, the robbers attempted to escape but the deceased Munkailu Tordia, 40 years and Fuseini Benorwuo, 38 years a driver and a farmer, who saw the incident from a distance raised the alarm and decided to chase them, which resulted in the robbers shooting them to death.
Other eyewitnesses said the deceased identified one of the robbers and mentioned the name, leading to the eventual shooting of the pair.
“The moment after the attack, two of the robbers who could not start the engine of the unregistered Aloba motorcycle left it and bolted away while shooting in the air.
This scared many of the residents who hid in their rooms in fear, a witness said.
Upon hearing of the incident, angry youth combed the immediate surroundings in search of them but were unsuccessful.
The police in Welembelle also joined the community to pursue the robbers before Chief Superintendent Frederick Lumor, the Sissala East Divisional Commander visited the scene of the attack and interacted with the families of the deceased.
He encouraged the elders and members of the community to partner with the police by giving useful information that would help them arrest the suspects.
He assured the people of swift investigation into the issue.
No arrest has been made yet.
The Welembelle robbery and the killing of the two have shocked the entire Sissala area where armed robbery of mobile money vendors and shops appear to be on the rise.
For the past two months, robberies have been reported at Bugubelle, Kong, Challu and Welembelle.
The police in Tumu, however, had made some arrests in the robbery incident at Kong and the alleged attackers put before the court.
Welembelle is the next largest community apart from Tumu with a population of close to 4000 people with fewer police personnel and several communities to serve, which are far from each other.
The Assembly member appealed to the Inspector General of Police to increase police presence in Welembelle and open other police posts in the Sissala East Municipality.
The two deceased who left behind wives, children and other relatives have since been buried according to Islamic requirements.
Source: GNA
