Obuasi: Police foil highway robbery, three suspects gunned down

Police in the Ashanti Region have shot dead three suspected armed robbers and recovered seven firearms in a pre-emptive operation along the Anwiankwanta–Obuasi Highway.

The suspects—Seidu Issah, Musah Yakubu, and Yahaya Munkaila, also known as Tijani—were intercepted on December 24,  2025 as they gathered in a bush between Anwiankwanta and the Jacobu junction to execute a planned attack. Officers came under gunfire and returned fire, killing the three suspects, while two others managed to escape.

Authorities retrieved two loaded pump-action guns, one unbranded pistol, 25 live cartridges, and six spent cartridges from the scene. The suspects were rushed to Bekwai Municipal Hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival, and their bodies deposited at the morgue for autopsy.

The three are believed to have been involved in several violent crimes, including the Jacobu airport robbery on November 3, 2025, which resulted in the death of a security officer, multiple highway robberies along the Manso stretch, the Antoakrom robbery, the Abofour forest robbery near Offinso, and an attack on a gold buyer at Anwiankwanta on 8 December 2025.

In a follow-up operation on 26 December at a palm plantation near Manso Nkwanta, where the suspects were known to hide rifles, police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle, an MG3 rifle, a pump-action gun, and a single-barrel gun, along with ammunition and personal items.

Police say efforts are ongoing to trace the sources of the weapons and apprehend accomplices still at large.