Police deploy personnel to fight criminals at Kasoa

The Police Administration has deployed police personnel to Kasoa in the Central Region to clamp down on land guards and armed robbers whose activities have claimed three lives within two weeks.

The personnel are to patrol the area day and night, especially areas identified as crime prone, to ensure the safety of life and property in the area.

The Director-General of Police Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP) Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has, therefore, assured residents of Kasoa that the police will not rest until all the bad nuts have been weeded out of the area.

He warned that the police would deal decisively with criminals who had been disturbing the peace in the area, especially land guards whose activities had caused mayhem and deaths.

Criminal activities

Within two weeks, three persons have been killed and another is battling for his life, following criminal activities of land guards.

The first was a 52-year-old commercial bus driver who was killed at Opeikuma, a suburb of Kasoa, by some suspected land guards over transport fares.

Family and residents have been quick to link the murder to a tussle over land and have since been on a warpath with authorities demanding justice.

A few days after that, a young lady was found dead in a bush at Akwele, near the Kasoa New Market on the Bawjiase Road. This was after she was allegedly raped and later killed by her assailants.

Barely four days later, another young lady was killed by some unknown persons at the Peace and Love Guest House, near Pink FM.

She has been identified as a receptionist at the guest house, who was said to have been raped before being stabbed in the chest.

Even before the dust could settle on that attack, 21-year-old Kwame Osei was also attacked at Anigyekrom at Opeikuman with machetes supposedly by land guards for refusing to hand over his money and mobile phone to them.

He went into coma after he was attacked and inflicted with knife wounds.

Residents of Kasoa and adjoining communities, such as Ngleshie Amanfro, have been living in fear following armed robbery attacks on them.

According to the Kasoa Divisional Commander of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dennis Abade, so far, seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of the driver.

He said with the others, the police were still investigating and appealed to members of the communities where those crimes were committed to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Residents of the area

Residents of the affected areas have blamed landlords for renting out their premises to persons without any proper background checks on them, reports Deborah Oluwamuyiwa from Kasoa.

According to our reporter, about 90 suspected criminals had so far been arrested in swoops in and around Kasoa since the police arrived.

The police have also retrieved two guns and substances suspected to be Indian hemp and cocaine from the suspects.

Addressing the personnel after the swoop, COP Dr Dampare said the police had the mandate to maintain law and order and protect life and property anytime, saying “we have no choice than to come in with all the force necessary to bring peace to the communities.”

The police commander and his entourage also visited the families of the deceased and assured them that the police would do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to book.