NOTORIOUS ARMED ROBBER ARRESTED IN WA (PAGE 21, FEB 23, 2010)

THE Wa police have arrested an alleged notorious armed robber who has been terrorising and robbing travellers in the Wa Municipality at dawn.
The suspect, Hamidu Issahaque alias Whiskey, 34, was said to have attacked his last victim in the early hours of last Wednesday, when the victim was standing on the shoulder of the road near the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) station waiting to board a taxi.
The Upper West Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alex Bedie, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said Issahaque together with another accomplice at large, used an unregistered motorbike in their operations.
He said in the latest robbery, the suspect and his accomplice approached their victim and even before the victim could utter a word, he (Issahaque) gave the victim some slaps.
ACP Bedie said Issahaque immediately ordered the victim to surrender his mobile phone, money and other belongings but some police personnel who had laid ambush nearby quickly rushed to the aid of the victim and Issahaque was arrested in the process.
He added that the motorbike had also been impounded.
ACP Bedie said upon interrogation, Issahaque admitted being the brain behind four of such reported robberies in the municipality in the last few months.
He said when the suspect was searched, the police found a locally manufactured pistol and live cartridges on him.
The regional commander said following persistent complaints of robberies in the municipality, the police intensified their patrols in the night and also mounted surveillance in some of the spots suspected to be hideouts for criminals.
He said it was during the exercise that Issahaque was apprehended when he was in the process of robbing a traveller early Wednesday morning.
He said preliminary investigations by the police revealed that another robbery case involving the suspects was pending in a court in Wa.
According to him, after the criminals had been granted bail by the court, they went back to continue with their nefarious activities.
In a related development, ACP Bedie said the police had arrested another suspected armed robber, Unbulm Kuntuanaa, a 40-year-old farmer, who was suspected to have been robbing people in the Wa Municipality.
He said when his room was searched, the police found two single-barrelled guns, two locally manufactured pistols and a quantity of leaves suspected to be Indian hemp.
ACP Bedie said Kuntuanaa claimed ownership of one of the single-barrelled guns and the two pistols and said one of the guns belonged to his father, which he exchanged for a goat from someone he could not identify.
He said the two suspects were in custody pending further investigations.
Meanwhile, the Regional Crime Officer, DSP Wisdom Lawoe, has sent a strong warning to suspected criminals in the region to reform because the police were taking the war to them.
DSP Lawoe said the exercise was still ongoing and that the police would not live anything to chance until they were satisfied that the crime situation had reduced drastically.