The suspects
The Volta Regional Police Command has apprehended 13 suspects believed to be engaged in various criminal acts in Aflao and its environs in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region.
The suspects who are made up of eleven males and two females and aged between 18 and 50 years were picked up at different points Tuesday dawn in a raid conducted by the regional police command.
The swoop was part of a grand operation of the regional police command to clamp down on criminal activities in the border town.
Some of the suspects were arrested in ‘ghettoes’, slums and other secluded areas where they mostly use as their hideouts and resting places.
Most of the arrested suspected were in possession of substances suspected to Indian hemp (wee) while others were picked up at the Aflao ‘Low Cost area’ with a whitish substance believed to be cocaine.
The Volta Regional Police Commander, ACP Nana Asomah Hinneh briefing the media after the arrest indicated that the suspects were arrested following intelligence gathered by the police about criminals robbing and attacking travellers at Aflao, Ghana’s main eastern border with neighbouring Togo and its environs.
He said, “some of the suspects often posed as immigration officers and other security personnel and harass unsuspecting travellers from other parts of the country, especially people coming from Kumasi who want to cross into Togo for business activities.
“By so doing they just take their cash and other valuables from them (travellers) and run away. So, when we went there today around 4am, we saw some of them in the act and they have all been picked up”, he said.
ACP Asomah added that the 13 suspects will be screened and any of them found culpable will be put before court.
He said the regional police command will not rest on its oars as it will intensify the fight against crimes and other illegalities in Aflao and the region at large to provide the needed security for citizens to go about their activities without fear.
Gibril Abdul Razak, Ho. (gbabdulrazak@gmail.com)