Mobile money vendors at Ahodwo Nhyiaeso in Kumasi, the Ashanti Region capital, say they are living in fear over persistent attacks on them.
In the latest incident, a female vendor was shot twice in both thighs by armed men who forcibly took money running into thousands of cedis from her at a pub where she had sought refuge.
On a typical afternoon, Ahodwo Nhyiaeso, a first class residential area is very quiet except for few shop operators scattered across, a conducive situation for the armed robbers.
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At about 6:30 p.m. last Tuesday, two men on a motorbike were spotted in what some suspected to be spying mission. Connie, the mobile money vendor who was shot in her thighs, sensed danger and walked briskly into a pub filled with football fans watching a World Cup match.
The robbers trailed her and fired twice in the facility, leaving the lady wounded.
Connie has been discharged from the hospital but she is still nursing her wounds.
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”I used to wake up at 5:30 am for work and since the incident happened I get sad when the clock hit 5:30. I will not go back to do this job again. This is not the first time I have been robbed there. The first one, the people came unarmed…I don’t know what will happen the next time,” she said.
Owner of the pub, Elizabeth Kaba, says her children who were there at the time of the incident are so traumatised that they are yet to overcome the scare.
“One of the guys who were here tried to attack them but we all shouted at him to stop.
“He only had a stone in his hand, but the robbers were armed. I have ever since been living in fear. My 13-year-old daughter hasn’t been able to sleep ever since the incident happened. She wakes me up every night to tell me she is afraid,” she narrated.
Attacks on mobile money vendors in Kumasi
Attacks on Mobile Money vendors reached its peak early in the year. Most of the incidents happened in broad daylight.
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Two vendors were shot dead in separate incidents, others sustaining various degrees of injuries.
Money running into thousands of cedis has been taken from the vendors.
A notorious robber police describe as a lone ranger is suspected to be behind such siege but he remains fugitive.
The trend which went down for some time appears to have resurfaced.
Residents are calling on the police to intensify patrol in the city especially in the afternoons.
