The facade of the Citadel Hospital
Security Agents from the military and some national security operatives descended on the citadel Hospital at Alajo in Accra, and confiscated locally
manufactured firearms and ingredients that resemble those used for the production of explosives.
The Director of the facility, a certain Dr. Fred Mac Palm, and his accomplice said to be a manufacturer of firearms, were handcuffed and whisked away.
Impeccable information available to DAILY GUIDE has it that the hospital has been under surveillance for some time. The family of the doctor who could not locate his whereabouts, let alone secure bail for him, were said to have concluded rather sarcastically that he had been kidnapped.
The area where the hospital generator sits contains telltale materials which resemble those used for the manufacture of offensive projectiles and explosives.
Patients and staff members were taken unaware as some 10 or so soldiers, in their olive green uniforms, gate-crashed into the hospital. The surprise on the faces of persons within the hospital and outside it was unsurprising since after all health facilities are hardly subjected to such searches or even scrutiny.
It did not take them long for the security operatives to locate what they wanted to lay hands on following the tip-off. Although not too much of a cache of arms, four locally manufactured weapons in a hospital and materials bearing resemblance to those used by ragtag militias to produce explosives are enough to raise eyebrows.
Perhaps that prompted onlookers to conjecture a linkage between the suspects and terrorist organizations active outside our northern frontiers.
Citadel Hospital is patronized by many and so news about the security operation expectedly trended on social media and outside residents in the neighbourhood of Ayawaso Central Constituency. An anonymous worker of the health facility which is situated at the right hand side of the main Alajo road leading towards the Kaneshie Station in the area, said “soldiers came to the premises on Friday and arrested the medical director whose details are being withheld.”
“They proceeded to a section of the facility and pulled out four weapons and other stuff which were of interest to them,” the eyewitness said.
There is no reason not to believe that the operation was an informant-led one, considering the place the weapons were concealed.
Although a briefing about the find has not been made by the security agents, many could not but conclude that the hospital doubles as a place for either storing ingredients for the production of explosives or even the manufacture of the latter.
Flurry of Activities
On Saturday, there were still flurry of security activities around the facility even though the facility has not been shut down. It is thought that the suspects are being held at the Bureau of national investigations (BNI) headquarters or their greater Accra regional offices.
Four days after the arrest of the proprietor of the hospital, the National Security apparatus is yet to brief the nation about the development, leaving social media to spread conjectures.
Small Arms
An official of the national Commission on Small Arms and light Weapons told DAILY GUIDE when reached for comments that the laws of Ghana do not permit anybody to produce firearms. Locally manufactured guns, he said, because of the largely inferior metals used for their production, pose danger to those who use them.
The illegal production of firearms earns capital punishment, he said. The proliferation of small arms across the country is a national security issue which the government is trying to address effectively.
The bizarre presence of locally manufactured weapons in a health facility, until the full details make it to the media, will remain a conundrum.
BY A.R. Gomda