Police in Tamale, the Northern Region capital, have foiled an attack on a police station Tuesday by a group that tried to release a suspect in custody.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Northern Regional Police Command, DSP Yusif Tanko, told Top Story on Joy FM that the mob, numbering about 30, stormed the district police post to free the suspect on Tuesday morning.
The suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, had been picked up for allegedly using a heavy-duty machine to destroy construction materials on a disputed land.
“We had a complaint last Saturday to the effect that there was a land litigation between two persons so somebody picked these heavy-duty machines and went to the land and destroyed cement bags and other building materials.
“And this morning the suspect was arrested to assist with investigations and the people I am talking about came, insisting that the suspect should be released. But we held that we needed to carry on investigations to a certain point before we determine whether we could release him on bail, but the attackers tried to forcibly take the suspect from us,” DSP Tanko recounted on Top Story Tuesday.
Four out of the 30 unarmed persons that descended on the police station have since been arrested, the police PRO revealed.
The attackers, he explained, were huge construction vehicle operators.
“Our men resorted to the use of warning shots to be able to disperse them,” he stated.
Impunity
Security expert, Adam Bona, said the incident in Tamale points a worrying trend in Ghana.
“Increasingly, it looks like we have a lot of people in this country who have lost that fear for guns and we have lost that fear for the police and so one member of a gang is arrested and the next thing you hear is they take the law into their own hands in an attempt to free the suspects who have been lawfully detained,” he observed.
He commended the Tamale police for not shooting the mob that attacked the police station.