Police to deal with armed thugs

Page 55: Daily Graphic, July 16, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Police Administration has directed its personnel to go all out to use every legitimate means to deal with armed thugs.
“The police personnel have been asked to use the appropriate force that is legitimate, legal and reasonable and also to be accountable to the people of Ghana in whatever situation they find themselves,” it said.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Samuel Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic in response to accusations of extra-judicial killings against personnel engaging in shoot-out with armed robbers that those making the accusations were insincere with themselves.
According to him, instead of submitting themselves to arrest after the police had intervened in the Anwiankwanta incident for instance, the robbers started shooting at the police, resulting in an injury to one of the policemen.
He also cited another incident at Mampong in the Ashanti Region recently in which the armed thugs made passengers to have sex in the open after robbing them of their personal effects and another incident at Anwiankwanta in which a policeman was shot dead.
DSP Ofori said whatever the level of gunshot injury a police personnel sustained, it was a threat to their survival, for which reason the police must respond appropriately.
“If armed thugs can with impunity shoot to kill legitimate officers such as the police and the military with their illegal weapons in their unlawful acts, then the police have the right to fight crime and defend themselves,” he said, stressing that “we see it as acts of insurgency and will not allow this banditry to continue”.
He stated that the security personnel were paid to engage in fighting crime, to ensure that decent and hardworking people enjoyed their rest and the fruits of their hard work, therefore, they would do whatever it could within any logistics constraints to fulfil that mandate.
Meanwhile, the Director-General in charge of Administration and Human Resource, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mohammed Alhassan, has commended the personnel of the service who were engaged in thwarting the Anwiankwanta, Ashaiman and Madina robberies on Monday.
At the weekly Inspector General of Police (IGP) parade yesterday, Mr Alhassan assured members of the public that the police would use all legitimate means they could marshall to bring the scourge of armed robbery under control.
He said the personnel were psychologically and physically prepared to combat crime and, therefore, called on the public to support the police.
He reminded the public of the reward package of GH¢2,000 to GH¢5,000 for those who provided information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of criminals.
Between the dawn of Monday, July 13, 2009 to about 8pm that same day, three robberies were foiled by the Accra, Tema and Ashanti Regional Police Commands.
In the first case at Madina, the armed robbers fled and left behind an AK47 rifle with 34 rounds of ammunition while at Ashaiman later in the day, the Tema police foiled a robbery at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) cash point which resulted in the death of one of the robbers.
Then at about 7:30pm at Anwiankwanta on the Bekwai-Obuasi road, eight armed robbers, all believed to be of Fulani extraction, were killed in a shoot-out with a team from the Police Buffalo Unit.
Four others believed to have sustained gunshot wounds managed to escape into the bush and the police have called on the public, especially those manning medical centres, to be on the lookout for anyone with suspected gunshot wounds who might seek medical attention.
The robbers had barricaded the road about 7 p.m. and succeeded in robbing and molesting many travellers on the road when a detachment from the Police Buffalo Unit descended on them.