Fear grips Lapaz Residents

Residents of Lapaz, a suburb of Accra, are living in a state of apprehension and panic of either being attacked or inflicted with cutlass wounds by a gang of four men.

This follows an upsurge of crimes in the area which is carried out by four-gang men who continue to terrorize and rob inhabitants of their valuable properties.

The Ghanaian Journal was reliably informed by some of the residents that the situation as of now has taken a sharp turn for the worst with many of them without the slightest idea of when this gang will strike. What has become more frightening for the residents is that the self styled gang men can strike at anytime of the day making them very deadly.

“Our worst fear is that this gang can strike at anytime of the day and normally when they strike most of us the residents run for cover for fear of losing our lives in the event that we want to intervene,” Yaw Boakye, a middle-aged man, who has been living in Lapaz for the past twenty years lamented.

Investigations by The Ghanaian Journal revealed that the four gang men have their hideout at Fadama where they plan before they set off to rob people of Lapaz.. Most of the people who have fallen prey to this gangsterism and criminal activity are mostly market women who live their houses at dawn to their business centres. Our findings established that Bankers who live early to work have not also been spared the wrath of this group of gangster.

The paper garnered that the modus operandi of the gang is that they use motor bikes which have no number plates and also carry along well-sharpened cutlasses. The residents told our reporter that when this group of criminals come into contact with their victims, they first threaten you with their cutlasses, and later compel you to surrender all your personal belongings. And these items mostly include money and mobile phones.

According to the residents, any resistance from their victims results in a brawl where the gang inflict deep cutlass wounds on their victims. This, [they the residents] explained is cruelly perpetuated by the gang to paralyze their victims and make them surrender their items.

“They usually inflict deep cutlass wounds particularly on the arms and body of and body who attempts to brawl with them when they want to rob you,” Mame Yaa, a trader in the area told The Ghanaian Journal.

The residents told The Ghanaian Journal that despite numerous pleas made to the police and other law enforcement agencies nothing seems to be done about the situation. Instead, they remonstrated that the four-men gang continue to carry out their activities with ease in the area.

“For now, we are living in absolute fear and if nothing is done about this gang we would be witnessing situations were these criminals will start killing innocent citizens.” the residents sadly expressed.

To this end, they called on the police to see this as a distress call from them and act with dispatch to bust this gang who from the look of things will stop at nothing to perpetuate crimes against humanity.

“We are through this medium calling on the police to act with dispatch and help the people of Lapaz come out of this situation,” the residents urged.