Police Administration dispatches crack teams to Kumasi to help fight armed robbery
The Police Administration has deployed a number of its personnel from the specialised formed units to Kumasi to assist the police in the Ashanti Region to contain the spate of armed robbery in the city and its environs.
The Director-General in charge of Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Christian Tetteh Yuhonu, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, said the personnel, who were deployed last Sunday, were drawn from the Counter Terrorism and the SWAT units of the Ghana Police Service Headquarters in Accra.
Two successive armed robberies in three days have sent shock waves among the residents of Kumasi.
A police officer was shot in a car after armed robbers raided a hotel at Denkyemuoso last Friday.
Last Saturday, another resident was chased to his house by armed robbers and killed at Ahenema Kokoben, near Kumasi.
COP Yuhonu said the police administration was optimistic that the spate of robbery in Kumasi and other parts of the region would be brought under control by the specialised teams.
Meanwhile the Ashanti Regional Security Council held a crucial meeting in Kumasi yesterday to map out strategies to contain the menace.
In a related development, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Nathan Kofi Boakye, has directed all officers to intensify patrols and carry out frequent body and vehicular searches from evening to morning.
At an emergency meeting of all police chiefs in the region, DCOP Boakye charged the officers to hit the ground running to consolidate the gains achieved in the fight against armed robbery.
The command has mounted a search for suspected armed robbers who have been terrorising residents in the metropolis.
However, contrary to media reports that armed robbery attacks have been on the ascendancy, the Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Mohammed Yussif Tanko, said the threat had reduced drastically.
He said the recent attacks received high media publicity because human lives were lost.
“Certainly when such attacks lead to loss of lives, they will receive high media coverage and it is understandable,” he said.
Bottlenecks
He admitted that the stretch from Ahenema Kokoben to Pakyi No. 2 did not have enough police stations, but said poor streets and the residential naming system sometimes slowed down efforts by the police to identify exact crime areas.
