Thugs on rampage across the country

Some thugs went on the rampage in some areas across the country, looting shops, coordinating directorates and state-owned facilities, claiming that their government was now in charge.

On Graphic Road in Accra yesterday, some of the thugs attempted to loot shops closer to the Head Office of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), leaving members of the public to run helter-skelter.

The timely arrival of the police patrol team prevented the looting of goods from the provision shops located on Graphic Road.

Scores of the rampaging youth stormed the premises of the shops around 10:30 a.m. and tried to make away with some of the goods.

“I was here when the thing happened. I saw the guys coming and we were all looking at them; then, all of a sudden, they branched into the shops and tried to loot it. Luckily, the police came quickly and they ran away,” a tricycle operator, Kusi Agyemang, told the Daily Graphic.

Mr Agyemang added that the mob did not escape with any goods from the shop because of the police intervention.  A mobile money vendor in the area, Yaw Agyei, said customers of the shops were jittery as many of them took cover to avoid any attacks from the mob.
 

Police presence

The Daily Graphic observed that there were dozens of police officers around the shop with five police cars parked on the shoulders of the road.

Some of the police officers were providing security to patrons of the shops while others managed traffic flow towards the Central Business District of Accra.

Attempts by the Daily Graphic to get the angle of the police on the incident were not successful as they declined to comment on the issue.

Aside from that, the head office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in Accra was also ransacked. Similar incidents were reported in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, and Akomadan in the Offinso North Constituency in the Ashanti Region.

Tamale

In Tamale, some youth were seen vandalising the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly premises, looting food items from a warehouse.

According to eyewitnesses, the youth, wearing NDC-branded T-shirts, stormed the assembly, damaging some property and carted food supplies reportedly intended for community distribution.

Some of the youth claimed the food items were meant for farmers but were allegedly hoarded by the management of the metropolis for personal use.

The situation escalated further when some more youth, said to be from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side, joined the fray, attempting to seize some of the looted items for themselves.

Akomadan

At Akomadan, some youth reportedly stormed a warehouse to loot bags of fertiliser.

While there, some others, reportedly members of the NPP, moved in to stop the looting.

This degenerated into a scuffle, leading to one person being lynched.

Again, some youth at Tarkwa Nsueam, led by the assembly member on Monday morning, besieged a community mining site and gave the workers a one-day ultimatum to vacate the premises.