By Caesar Abagali/Bajin D. Pobia
Wa, Sept. 19, GNA – A search team instituted by the Waala Traditional Council to help the Regional Police Command to unravel the recent abductions and killings of night security guards in the municipality has arrested a man suspected to be involved in the mystery killings.
The man whose name has been withheld was picked up at an uncompleted storey building around Bamahu, a suburb of Wa and handed over to the police for investigations.
A bicycle pump, a cutlass, an axe and a shirt, which were identified by one of the deceased sons as his father’s items were found on the floor of the room where the suspect lived.
Wa-Naa, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, Overlord of the Waala Traditional Council, announced this at a meeting with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare during his maiden visit to the Upper West Region amidst the recent abductions and killings of 10 persons including private security personnel.
The Wa-Naa appealed to the IGP to beef up police personnel in the region, saying, “The region needs more permanent police personnel on the ground immediately as it is closer to neighbouring Burkina Faso, which had been besieged by terrorist attacks in recent times”.
He asked for adequate logistical support for the police and a radical shakeup within the rank and file of the police in the region, especially those that had in the region for so many years.
Naa Pelpuo told the IGP that the Waala Traditional Council and other authorities in the municipality had not relented their efforts to get the perpetrators arrested since the heinous crimes started.
“We held several meetings with some settler communities largely perceived to be behind these crimes and also followed up with meetings with the various religious leaders in the municipality and provided material support to them to offer intercessory prayers and sacrifices”, he told the IGP.
He said the Waala Traditional Council was also collaborating with the Police to resuscitate the defunct neighborhood watchdog committees in the electoral areas and pleaded with the Police Command for some of the processes for profiling them to be suspended for now to enable them to hit the ground running.
“Despite the increased numbers of your men on the ground, there is still need for local support. For us in the region, times are not normal and we should do all it takes to put an immediate stop to this assault on our peace and security”, the Wa-Naa told the IGP.
He said, as the crimes were trending, the perpetrators were also getting emboldened daily after each successful act saying, “This time round, it had exposed the night watchmen and most of them were now deserting their posts”.
“Who next when the watchmen are no longer available for easy picking? This is not difficult to conjecture, as a woman was attacked in her well-barricaded house three days ago.
Naa Pelpuo appealed to the Interior Minister Mr Ambrose Dery to allow the Ghana Armed Forces stationed in Wa to join the fight.
Meanwhile, the GNA investigations had gathered that there are no night security guards at most private and state entities in the municipality since their lives were in danger.
Other sources told the GNA that the mystery killings started long ago but with mad persons in the municipality thereby reducing the number of mad population in the Wa municipality.
GNA