Following a robbery incident at Makafui and Sons Lotto firm in Ayitikorpe in the Akatsi South Municipality of the Volta Region on Monday night, one person was murdered and four others were injured.
Six alleged thieves broke into the company's premises at 8:30 p.m., when just a few employees had returned from their usual closing ritual.
Dotsey Dogbatey, one of the company's drivers, was killed when the armed men shot him in the back, while other workers were injured and taken to the hospital.
"I had just come from closing and was about to drop my car key," one of the victims and a firm employee, Yaw Gakpo, narrated his story. People entered the premises and began firing intermittently just as I entered the office to deposit the key.
"They asked to see the Director, and when I told them I didn't know where he was, they began kicking and punching me."
"When the thieves arrived to the gate, it was closed, so they hammered it hard till the deceased (Dotsey Dogbatey) proceeded to open it, assuming it was some other colleagues who had returned, but they shot him just as he opened the gate," he continued.
"I was serving meals to people who had returned from closing when the thieves attacked the establishment and asked that I accompany them to where the money is," Cecilia Gadasu, a chef at the firm, claimed.
They abused me since I told them I was merely a cook and didn't know where the money was stored. They were disguised, spoke Ewe, and wore black clothes."
According to his sister, Akwelley Dogbatey, the deceased had three children.
"He is my younger brother," the tearful sister said to reporters, "but when I heard on the radio that the place was under assault, I merely said he wouldn't be involved because he would typically report there late." But a few minutes later, I got a phone from my twin sister saying our brother had been shot, and then another call, so I ran out only to find my brother dead."
"I'm distraught and can't stop crying." He started working at the firm last year, but the hectic work was not beneficial for him, but he opted to stay to feed the kids. "Dotsey has died, leaving these children behind, including a newborn," she bemoaned as she sobbed.
Three of the four victims were transferred to the Akatsi South Municipal hospital with varied degrees of injury, while the fourth was sent to the Ho Teaching hospital for treatment.
During the heist, the victims said they were told to lie on the ground with their faces on the ground.
Other people connected to the firm have told Kasapa News that an undisclosed sum of money was taken from the engine room, where daily operations revenues are held.
This is the second robbery event to plague the firm in less than a year.
Robbers assaulted the firm in May 2021, stealing large quantities of money and shooting the CEO, Mr. Kumadzi, in the leg.
Some of the suspects were later caught and were aiding the police in their investigations prior to this current event, according to reports.
According to the Ghana Police Service's 2021 crime reports, crime in the Akatsi South Municipality has risen in recent years, with robbery, petty theft, rape, and the use and dealing of illicit narcotics leading the list of crimes.