One of the most wanted suspected armed robbers in the Ashanti Region died in a joint police and military operation in Kumasi last Saturday.

The robber, Awudu Karim, was shot after he  had allegedly resisted arrest and threatened to kill a soldier who was part of the security team conducting the patrols in the metropolis.

Awudu Karim, popularly known as “Awudu Maayanka”, has been on the police wanted list for more than five years and was alleged to be the brain behind a series of robberies in Kumasi and Obuasi.

He was also alleged to have raped a number of women, including prostitutes, through their anal passage.

The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbillah, who briefed the press in Kumasi, said one police officer spotted Awudu at the Aboabo Lorry Station at Alabar between 10 p.m and 11p.m and called for reinforcement to help apprehend him.

The commander said upon the arrival of the patrol team, a soldier engaged Awudu and arrested him but the suspect managed to free himself, injuring the military man in the process.

He said they pursued him and just as he pulled a locally manufactured pistol and pointed it at the military man, the police were forced to gun him down.

DCOP Timbillah said two live cartridges aside  from what had been loaded in the locally manufactured gun, were retrieved from him.

In addition to that, two mobile phones, one of which was later identified as a phone he  had snatched from someone in the afternoon, were retrieved from him.

DCOP Timbillah said Awudu had been organising young boys for robbery expeditions, as well as raping his victims. He claimed  that some lady victims who had come forward to identify him claimed that Awudu preferred raping them via the anus.

The Police Commander said on Friday Awudu outwitted the police at the Asokwa Residential area after a robbery expedition from which he made away with four video decks, GH¢150 cash, four mobile phones and a television set.

He stated that on Saturday the police got another information that someone was terrorising and robbing people at Atonsu Kuwait and the police followed up and later managed to arrest Francis Gyimah, 16, who mentioned Awudu as their mentor and           ringleader.

The suspect claimed Awudu  had been around the robbery scene but he fled before the police got there.

Upon a tip-off, the police proceeded to the house of another accomplice, named Paa Tuo, where the police retrieved robbery implements including two axes, a pair of scissors and a knife.  He said Paa Tuo was on the run and the police were looking for him.

DCOP Timbillah said Awudu was an ex-convict who was also being sought for by the Obuasi police for a number of crimes.

He said at the Asokwa Police Station, for instance, there were about three fresh robbery cases against him, which included an attack on some young boys on June 1, 2009, an attack on a beer bar where he was said to have ransacked the place and taken away money.

Since he was gunned down, a lot of people have been coming forward to identify him.

Moments after his body was dumped at the  Regional Police Headquarters, word went round the metropolis and many people besieged the place during the night and in the morning to identify him.

A team of prostitutes (call girls) who came to identify him  about 12 midnight jubilated over his death and alleged that  he had been terrorising them at their various hangouts and had been raping them.

“Awudu would never have sex with you in the normal way oo! He would force you to bend over at gunpoint and do it through the anus in the bush,” one of them told the Daily Graphic.

The remains have since been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue.