ACP AWUNI DIALOGUES WITH FULANI COMMUNITY (BACK PAGE, JUNE 27)

THE Northern Regional Police Command has identified Fulani herdsmen as the main perpetrators of armed robbery cases that have claimed many lives on the Tamale-Kumasi highway.
As a result, the new Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) Angwuntogne Awuni, last Thursday led a team of police personnel to interact with the Fulani community at Kabilpe, near Buipe in the Central Gonja District.
The interaction was aimed at sensitising the people to such negative practices as armed robbery, murder and rape which were rampant in the area.
According to ACP Awuni, most of the robbers had maimed and killed innocent citizens during their attacks on them, and warned that his outfit would deal ruthlessly with the perpetrators.
Statistics show that between December 2008 and June, this year, six highway robberies occurred along the Mpaha Junction-Buipe road, resulting in the death of three persons and injury to three others from gunshots. The figures also showed that a number of items such as mobile phones, and various sums of money had also been stolen from the robbery victims.
The commander warned that the police would not hesitate to deal ruthlessly with perpetrators of such crimes.
According to him, investigations showed that most often, the perpetrators used cattle to block the road during the robbery.
ACP Awuni equally observed that some Fulanis also allowed their cattle to stray into people’s farms in order to destroy their farm produce, which sometimes led to communal violence.
ACP Awuni urged the people to report to the police strangers with suspicious characters in the community.
The Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Peter Baba, for his part, indicated that the police would soon institute an incentive package for informants who volunteered information to the police on various crimes.
He intimated that cattle rustling, murder, rape and armed robbery were the common crimes being committed in the area.
The Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Union (MTTU), Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nana Kumi, entreated chiefs and opinion leaders to support the police to combat crime in the area.