Security agents yesterday cordoned off a street leading to the National Security Data Centre in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, after reportedly discovering suspected bomb-making materials in the vicinity.
Lance Corporal Isaac Bukari, a police officer on guard duty at the residence of the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Andy Osei-Okrah, alerted the chairman of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) when he found the “explosive-like” materials being dropped on the streets by two unidentified men.
The discovery triggered a major security operation that was said to have led to the neutralization of the “powerful explosives” that were allegedly in a cylinder outside the National Security Data Centre, which shares a common wall with the residence of Andy Osei-Okrah.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, John Alexander Ackon, said the explosive devices were timed to go off when the security operatives took control of them.
According to the minister, he was briefed by Lance Corporal Isaac Bukari, who claimed that two unidentified men on motorbike dropped the materials off after they had approached him (officer) earlier to enquire about someone he (officer) did not know.
The minister believed the device could have caused the loss of lives or damage to property if it detonated.
DAILY GUIDE gathered at the scene that the military experts used a powerful chemical sand to destroy the explosives, which people suspected to have been made from chemical powder and wire explosive-like materials.
It is not clear whether the suspected “explosive-like” materials were being targeted at the National Security Data Centre that receives inputs from the various CCTV cameras mounted at various intersections in Kumasi.
Because the security installation shares a common wall with the residence of the Deputy Regional Minister, who doubles as the Regional Campaign Coordinator of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), some activists of the ruling party have started pointing accusing fingers at opposition elements.
Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, COP Nathan Kofi Boakye, has called for calm in the metropolis as the suspected explosives were mere cylinder and wires.
He was overheard telling a journalist that he only found some gunpowder and connecting wires in a cylindrical object that were taken away by the military.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi