Armed robbers engaged police patrol teams in gun battles at various locations in Tema and its suburbs on Monday night and at Tuesday dawn as the police undertook a special operation to arrest criminals terrorising residents. At Sakumono, there was intermittent firing of guns for nearly 15 minutes as three armed men who had seized a private Fiat car, with registration number GE 2696 Y, from its owner opened fire on a police patrol team in a bid to escape arrest. On the Tema Motorway, another patrol team fought a gun battle with three robbers who had attacked and robbed three officials of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) who had closed from work and were driving home in an Opel Astra car, with registration number GW 5007 T. A task force from the Sakumono District Police Headquarters, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Amos Yelisong, arrested Abdullah Ibrahim, alias Dogo, 31, and Tajudeen Mohammed, 30, who were found riding an unregistered motorbike. They were carrying two sharpened machetes, a face mask and a dagger. During a search in their living rooms at Mamprobi in Accra, the police found a locally manufactured pistol, a hammer, a catapult and another dagger. A patrol team which received a distress call from a resident of Tema Community 20 at 11.00 p.m. during the operation responded promptly but three robbers who had attacked the caller had operated swiftly and managed to escape after robbing their victim of two phones, cash, a Barclays Bank ID card, cheque books and the ignition key to his car. The Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr John Kudalor, who briefed the Daily Graphic on the operation, said a patrol team which received a call reporting a shooting at Ashaiman during the operation, rushed to the location and found the body of Oko Amanor, 33, a driver, who had been shot by unknown assailants suspected to be robbers. The police commander said the deceased was found lying in a pool of blood near the Daaben Clinic at Ashaiman. While the operation was going on at dawn on Tuesday, Awudu Sule of Tema scaled the wall of the building housing the Main Barclays Bank Branch at Tema Community One, crawled along a sewage drain and entered a corridor leading to the banking hall, armed with a knife. He was spotted and arrested by David Osei, a policeman on duty, with the help of a construction worker, Mr Samuel Tetteh. The Public Affairs Officer of the Tema Regional Police, Inspector Oliver Turkson, explained that renovation work on the bank building was going on at night because work in the" daytime would inconvenience customers of the bank. Sule had taken advantage of a back door left open to facilitate the renovation work to enter the building, Inspector Turkson said. Giving details of some of the crimes, Mr Kudalor said the patrol team which responded to the distress call concerning the snatching of the Fiat car found the car being driven around the Sakumono Estates and signalled it to stop. He said the occupants drove for a distance and stopped. They then came out of the car and opened fire on the police and fled into a bush. He said the police found trails of blood at the scene of the shooting this morning and appealed to herbalists and proprietors of clinics to report any cases of people seeking treatment for gunshot wounds to the police. He said the car carrying the TMA officials home from work had broken down on the Motorway and they were waiting for help when the three armed men attacked and robbed them. The police patrol team happened to arrive on the scene and the robbers fired at the team. Mr Kudalor said when the police returned fire, the robbers fled and one of them dropped a pistol which was in the custody of the police. He appealed for information on the armed men who had shot Oko Amanor dead near the Daaben Clinic at dawn yesterday. Mr Kudalor said members of the public with information on the shooting and other crimes should call the following police emergency numbers: 022-202936, 022-202937, 022-401193 and 021-811600. Meanwhile, the Tema Regional Police Command has announced that an identification parade will be held at the Sakumono District Police Headquarters, near Vivian Farms, off the Sakumono-Ashaiman road, at 10.00 a.m. on June 13 and appealed to all victims of recent robberies at Sakumono and surrounding areas to attend the parade. Source: Daily Graphic