A 31-year-old Mobile Money operator has been shot dead by some unknown assailants at Kronom-Kyeraasi in the Afigya Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region on Saturday evening, the latest in a string of attacks on such businesses.
The Kodie District Police Command confirmed the incident to Citi News.
The deceased, Richmond Ofori, also called Papa Yaw, died instantly after the two gunmen who were on a motorbike shot him twice.
The deceased’s friend, 25-year-old Malik Ezekiel, who was also shot in the legs, is currently on admission at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
The assailants were said to have bolted with an unspecified amount of money.
Assembly Member for Kyekyere-Kyeraase Electoral, Michael Adu Poku also narrated to Citi News that when he got to the hospital, he was told that “the mobile money operator was dead on arrival.”
He noted that “after the incident, everybody’s attention was on the victims so no one took note of the assailants who committed the crime.”
The deceased’s body has since been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital awaiting an autopsy.
This incident adds to the growing number of robbery attacks at Mobile Money spots.
The Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP George Alex Mensah has attributed the increasing spate of attacks on mobile money businesses across the country to the proliferation of operators.
He said it is impossible for the Police Service, with its limited numbers, to provide security cover for all such businesses.
Proffering remedies to the challenges, DCOP Mensah also emphasized the need for the creation of a regulation that will determine the location of mobile money operation points.
“The banking sector is such that there is a law that without the presence of an armed officer you cannot open a bank so at the banks, if by 8.oclock, the police officer is not there, you cannot open,” he noted.
