A soldier was reportedly gunned down on Friday when a group of suspected armed robbers attacked a Mercedes Benz saloon car on the Tamale-Buipe highway in the Central Gonja District of the Northern Region. The deceased, a Warrant Officer (WO) whose name is being withheld for security reasons, was one of the five occupants of the vehicle, with registration number CR 826 W, that was travelling from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to Tamale when the incident occurred. It was, however, not clear who shot and killed the deceased. The outgoing Northern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Angwubutoge Awuni, who confirmed the story to the Daily Graphic in Tamale, said the incident happened at about 3:00 a.m. but the police were yet to establish where the gunshots that killed the soldier came from as the matter was still under investigations. According to him, the suspects had mounted road blocks in a bid to rob their victims and so when the car approached the crime scene one of the robbers asked the occupants to get down. He explained that after the robbery, a police officer reportedly appeared on the scene and engaged in a shoot-out with the robbers and they subsequently fled into a nearby bush. Narrating the incident, the driver of the vehicle, Mr Mahama Nasiru, said upon reaching the scene one of the robbers opened the driver's door and asked him (Nasiru) to come out and lie down. According to him, the robber asked him to bring the money he had on him to which he (Nasiru) refused and so the suspect took his mobile phone and robbed one of the occupants of an amount of GH¢2OO. Mr Nasiru explained that the robber asked the soldier also to come out of the vehicle and subsequently the soldier struggled with the robber and managed to snatch a locally manufactured weapon from him (the robber). The driver said the robber, sensing danger, ran into the bush. He said a few moments later he heard about three gunshots and when lie stood up he found the soldier lying dead. Source: Daily Graphic