Minister assesses security situation in Brong Ahafo

The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kofi Opoku, has charged municipal and district chief executives in the region to observe close working relationship with the police and ensure that they are provided with decent accommodation.

He said peace and security were prerequisites and a catalyst for development and gave an assurance that the Regional Co-ordinating Council would continue to foster strong collaboration with all security services in the region to ensure that the region was effectively secure.

Mr Eric Opoku said this during a working visit to security establishments in the region last week. 

At the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command, the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCOP Mr Maxwell Atingane, disclosed that the crime situation in the region had reduced. He said in the first quarter of this year, a total of 2,435 criminal cases were recorded as against 3,094 cases recorded the same period last year. The number, he said, represented a 21-per cent drop in criminal offences.

Armed robberies

According to the police commander, the region also recorded a 50-per cent decrease in armed robberies in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the figure for the same period in 2013, and that in most of the robberies that occurred, the robbers only made away with scant booty as the police were quick to confront them. He said even though some escaped, others were arrested, tried and sentenced to long prison terms.

Murder cases

DCOP Atingane said the region recorded 12 murder cases in the first quarter of this year as against 10 recorded in 2013 and nine theft cases this year compared with 18 recorded in 2013. He said there had also been 42 rape and defilement cases so far in 2014 as against 41 cases reported the same time last year, while an equal number of 11 narcotic cases were recorded in the first quarters of 2014 and 2013.

Accidents

The regional minister was informed that there had been a 25 per cent increase in road crashes in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the number of accidents in 2013. That notwithstanding, DCOP Atingane said there was a 16-per cent decrease in the number of persons killed as of end of March, this year. Of those killed, 58 per cent of them, he said, were pedestrians knocked down along the Techiman-Kintampo highway.

At the Fire Service Station, the Regional Commander of the National Fire Service (GNFS), Mr Kwame Larbi Appraku, informed the regional minister that for about seven years now, domestic and bush fires had accounted for the large number of fires experienced in the region. He explained that an average of 10 deaths were recorded annually from the fire disasters and about 300 people had so far been injured.

He said owing to fire disasters, the region lost more than GH¢3 billion in loss of property annually.

Mr Appraku said the service had stations in 17 out of the 27 districts in the region, but maintained that efforts were being made to open new fire stations at Kukuom, Odumasi, Nsoatre, Kwela Danso and Bui.

The regional minister also visited the Three Garrison at the Third Battalion of Infantry, where he was briefed on security situation in the region.