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Rising activities of armed robbers in Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of Northern Region are threatening lives and property, raising fear among members of several communities in the area, according to Birifor Youth Association (BYA).
“The armed robbers are having a field day in the District,” leaders of BYA told journalists in Wa in the Upper West Region over the weekend.
The youth are deeply worried about the increasing robbery attacks on citizens of the area with its attendant loss of lives, attributing the situation to what they described as “serious security breakdown”.
Mr Joseph Tii Dari, the National President of BYA, who addressed the media blamed the situation on “unprofessional conduct of police personnel in the District”.
The News conference sought to highlight the dire state of insecurity there in recent times following series of reports of multiple attacks on travellers and those living in their homes, prompting the youth to raise concerns over safety of inhabitants and security of their property.
Armed robbery attacks, murder and other related violent activities, Mr Dari said, had been on ascendancy since 2016 with no sign of abatement.
“In all these, the Ghana Police Service which was constitutionally mandated to protect life and property, maintain law and order have not done enough to earn confidence from the people of the district”, he said.
He condemned the brutal killing of three cattle owners at Gbalteng in two separate incidents, the shooting of a 45-yaer-old businessman and a little girl in March 2018 as well as the killing of a nurse of Sawla Polyclinic.
He claimed that all those incidents happened without any arrest made by the police.
Mr Dari accused the police of misconduct and cited the alleged snatching of the wife of a New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Executive by a police officer resulting in bloody clashes between the police and the irate youth as unacceptable.
The serious wounds sustained by some members of Kporju community during a police raid and the shaving of the head of a young man who was accused by a chief as being disrespectful, as some of unprofessionalism perpetuated by the police in the area.
He attributed rising cattle stealing and rampant robbery attacks on citizens to the suspicious conduct of the police and called on the Northern Regional Police Command and the Interior Minister to intervene swiftly by conducting thorough investigations to ensure justice prevailed.
“Equally, we call on human rights activists and other stakeholders to speak out against the conduct of the Ghana Police Service and come to the aid of the affected families”, he added.
Source: GNA
