Residents of Nyankyerenease in the Kwadaso Municipality of Ashanti Region are living in fear following recurring armed attacks on homes.
The emboldened criminals wielding pump action guns, pistols and machetes break into targeted homes and shops to rob residents off their valuables and cash.
Luv FM’s Clinton Yeboah visited the community and engaged victims who reveal at least five of such armed incidents this year alone.
The Nyankyerenease community is a quiet secluded area in the Kwadaso Municipality with confined layout settlements.
Many of the residents are currently living under a cloud of fear due to rising cases of armed robbery.
Two armed robbery incidents have been recorded in the space of a week.
Isaac Kofi Koomson is a middle-aged homeowner, one of many victims of the armed robbery incidents.
Mr. Koomson recounts his chilling encounter when his family was subjected to mistreatment by two towering armed men.
“I woke up to two giant men with pump action gun, machete and pistol demanding they give in their cash and valuables. Over 26, thousand cash were made away by these robbers. They took shoes, clothes and mobile phones. I am not the only one. It happens way too often,” he said.
In the same week, an unregistered car was dragged out a garage by unknown robbers.
Other residents who have experienced similar situations are left traumatized, with many families living in perpetual fear.
Kwesi (not his real name) a seventeen year old, gives harrowing accounts of his experience with some armed robbers some months back.
“I was traumatized since December of last year. For over three months I slept and stayed in the house thinking any unusual noise is an armed robber, coming to attack. It’s just recently that I have been able to step out the trauma,” he said.
“I can’t sleep when my husband is not around. I live in fear of them coming to harm me,” another victim said.
Some residents wake up with their window nets slashed and some valuables picked from their rooms.
They say, the assumption that newsite residents are rich has made the community a prime target for the robbers.
“Because here is a Newsite there is an assumption that people who are here are high income class earners so we have money or there are assets around. This has made the community has been deadly and scary,” they said.
Community members are urging authorities to intensify surveillance in the area to restore safety.
They say a volunteer security group established for the community failed to address the situation.
“Every day you sleep thinking that, your window nets would be cut and things would be dragged out. We live in fear, even in the afternoons. We have set up community volunteers, but they are not armed. So in effect, they are even in danger, we need heightened surveillance in this area. The police should help,” he said.
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