The Northern Regional Police Command says it has picked signals which indicate that some Mamprugu youth were being mobilised in the Northern Regional for an operation in the Upper East Region in support of their kinsmen involved in the intractable Bawku conflict.
Consequently, a strong security team has been positioned at Nalerigu to deal with that threat to security. According to the Northern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Angwubutoge Awuni, the youth had also resort psycological tactics, leveling all manner of allegations against security personnel to create disaffection for them.
He said the latest in the spate of allegations was the complaint lodged with the police by two women that they had been raped by some military personnel who were on patrol duties at Nalerigu.
ACP Awuni said the police had given the two women forms to go to the hospital for medical check up to establish they veracity or otherwise of their claims. He said the women had since never returned and that he had asked the District Police Commander to look for them for the medical reports to facilitate investigations into the allegations. He said if the allegation turned out to be true, the women would be made to indentify the culprits for the law to take its course.
ACP Awuni said he also had information that the Military High Command had dispatched a team to the area to investigate the allegations against the soldiers.
The Police Commander explained that a joint police-military patrol team heard sporadic gunshots in the area and decided to mount a thorough search. He said in the course of the search, the team entered a room and discovered a man and a woman making love but the woman, who was apparently afraid, screamed and ran out of the room.
Not long after that, the commander explained, some residents of the area claimed that some women had been raped during the search. He said the Regional Security Council might beef up security in the Nelerigu area to help maintain law and order, explaining that the withdrawal of the security would be dependent on how well the people conducted themselves.
Meanwhile, some residents of the area have allegedly burnt a house belonging to the prime suspect in the murder of the People’s National Convention (PNC) parliamentary candidate for the Nalerigu Constituency in the 2008 general election, Moses Alando Banaba.
ACP Awuni indicated that the police had told the chiefs in the area to appeal to the youth to desist from engaging in acts of lawlessness.
In a related development, the burial of the late Banaba is expected to take place at Nalerigu today. Banaba was killed by unknown assailants at Nalerigu. The prime suspect in the case, Salifu Tia, alias Salifu Zongo Naaba, a 31-year-old farmer, has been arrested by the police.
