Suspected notorious robber gunned down in Kumasi

ONE of the most wanted armed robbers on the list of the police in Kumasi, Awudu Karim, was gunned down by a military/police patrol team last Saturday night after more than five years of fruitless attempts to track him down. The death of the gangling Awudu came barely a week after police killed eight armed robbers on the Anwiankwanta-Bekwai road in the Ashanti Region and police said it was another success story in the fight against armed robbery. The deceased who had been linked to a series of robberies in Kumasi and Obuasi was also alleged to have raped a number of women including prostitutes through their anus. He was killed after resisting arrest and injuring a soldier in the process. Police said Awudu also violently freed himself and pointed a locally manufactured pistol at the soldier, forcing the police to gun him down. Popularly referred to as “Awudu Maayanka” the police claimed one of his accomplices named as Francis Gyimah, 16, had just been arrested on Saturday afternoon and had mentioned his name as his boss and mentor. A number of his victims have come forward to identify him as ever robbing and raping them. The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbillah, who briefed the press said one police officer spotted Awudu at the Aboabo Station at Alabar between 10 and 11pm and called for reinforcement to help apprehend him. The commander said upon the arrival of the patrol team a soldier engaged Awudu and arrested him but he managed to free himself injuring the military man in the process. He said they pursued him and just as he pulled a locally manufactured pistol and pointed it at the military man, the police were forced to gun him down. DCOP Timbillah said two live cartridges aside what had been loaded in the locally manufactured gun were retrieved from him. In addition to that two mobile phones, one of which was later identified as a phone he snatched from someone in the afternoon was retrieved from him. DCOP Timbillah said Awudu had been organising young boys for robbery expeditions as well as raping his victims. He claimed some lady victims who had come forward to identify him claimed Awudu preferred raping them via the anus. The Police Commander said on Friday he outwitted the police at the Asokwa residential area after a robbery expedition where he made away with four video decks, GH¢150 cash, four mobile phones and a television set. He stated that on Saturday the police got another information that someone was terrorizing and robbing people at Atonsu Kuwait and the police followed up and later managed to arrest Francis Gyimah, 16, who mentioned Awudu as their mentor and ring leader. The suspect claimed Awudu was around the robbery scene but fled before the police got there. Upon a tip off the police proceeded to the house of another accomplice, named as Paa Tuo where the police retrieved robbery implements including two axes, a scissors and a knife. He said Paa Tuo was on the run and the police were looking for him. DCOP Timbillah said Awudu was an ex-convict who was also being sought for by the Obuasi police for a number of crimes. He said at the Asokwa Police for instance there were about three fresh robbery cases against him which included an attack on some young boys on June 1, 2009, an attack on a beer bar where he was said to have vandalized, ransacked the place and took away money. Since he was gunned down a lot of people have been coming forward to identify him. Moments after his body was dumped at the police headquarters word went round the metropolis and many people besieged the police station during the night and in the morning to identify him. A team of prostitutes “call girls” who came to identify him at about 12 midnight jubilated over his death and alleged that he had been terrorizing them at their various hangouts and had been raping them. “Awudu would never have sex with you in the normal way oo!!, he would force you to bend over at gun point and do it through the anus in the bush”, one of them told the Daily Graphic. The remains have since been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue.