Police in the Northern Region are holding over 50 suspected criminals said to be hiding in a forest in the regional capital, Tamale.
An intelligence-led operation by the Ghana Police Service has led to the arrest in their hideout.
Police retrieved items and substances suspected to bebIndian hemp, cutlassrs, knives, motorbikes, plastic chairs among other dangerous implements.
In order to close down the hideout, police destroyed structures set up as camps by the suspected criminals.
Confirming the arrest, the Northern Regional Police Crime Officer, Superintendent Bernard Baba Ananga, said the Aboabo Forest in Tamale over time had become a hub for criminals within and outside the region where they planned their operations.
He observed that the forest also served as a hideout for wanted criminals who sought refuge there.
According to the police spokesperson, the decision to swoop the forest follows the Tamale police arrest of a wanted criminal in the forest recently.
He said the swoop was aimed at clamping down on criminal activities including prostitution.
“Criminals took up this area within the forest, patched up camps to do their operations from the forest, those criminals thought that the forest was a no go area and for that matter, they could do whatever they wanted and move in to do all the kinds of narcotics trade, prostitution turning the whole area into a market, they felt the authorities could not come in.
“About two weeks past, we arrested one notorious criminal, Asampana Ayini which we handed over to Bolgatanga who was declared wanted, and then he committed a lot of robberies at Bolga, ran into this forest. After the arrest, we gathered that most of the criminals were here and doing all kinds of businesses and any activities.”
By Vincent Kubi