The Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor, has given the chiefs and opinion leaders of Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains North District of the Eastern Region up to Friday to produce the ring leaders who reportedly instigated the residents to set ablaze the area’s police station so that they could face the full rigors of the law.
According to the IGP, they (chiefs and opinion leaders) would be arrested if they failed to produce them (ring leaders).
Mr. John Kudalor on Monday stormed Donkorkrom to seek information on the clash between the residents and the police which led to the injury of 17 people. At a meeting with the Attakora chief, Nana Akuamoah Boateng, the chief Imam and the opinion leaders, Mr Kudalor said, “Policing is a shared responsibility; I am asking you to produce the ring leaders before Friday because they are people living in the town who carried out the attacks..”
Some irate residents last Thursday set the police station in the town on fire in protest against some police officers who fled when they were being conveyed by fellow police officers for allegedly attacking a bullion van during which the driver of the van was killed.
Congratulations
The police administration last Friday pulled out officers in the troubled town.
However, the IGP before meeting the chiefs, interacted with the police currently guarding the area, and congratulated them “on a good job done,” despite the magnitude of the attacks.
Chief’s Response
Nana Akuamoah Boateng in his response, condemned the action of the police against nomadic herdsmen, and asked the IGP to transfer the officers from the Afram Plains District and bring new personnel.
He said, “For the past three years there has been a series of armed robbery cases. We usually attribute this to the Fulanis but the recent incident has taught us that it is not the Fulani people but it is the police who always dress like Fulanis and attack people. Each time there is an armed robbery and we call the police, they feel reluctant to come. There is not a single day that a police has arrested an armed robber.”
Nana Boateng further said the recent arrest in connection with GCB bullion van robbery affirmed the long-standing suspicion of police involvement in almost all the robberies.
The chief underscored, “We are also aware that Afram Plains has become a depot for undisciplined police officers. We are ready to take you round some questionable properties acquired by some officers within their short stay in the district.”
Chief Imam
Alhaji Fuseini Ousman, the District Chief Imam of the area, stated that the robbery incidents in the district were collapsing businesses saying, market women fear to carry huge sums of money on them to go and buy wares, fearing that they would be robbed.
NDC Organizer Chides IGP
Meanwhile, the Eastern Regional Deputy Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hackmann Kabore, had expressed disappointment in Mr Kudalor for failing to visit the victims who suffered police gunshots and are receiving treatment at the hospital.
According to him, the behaviour of the IGP clearly indicated that he is arrogant and doesn’t care about the lives of the injured victims.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Donkorkrom