The Accra Regional Police Command has intensified measures to apprehend the members of an armed robbery gang who are behind the threat on the lives of residents of Agape near Accra.
Even though 27-year-old Samiru Salifu, suspected to be the ring leader of the gang which calls itself the Armed Robbers Association (ARA), has been arrested, the police believe there are remnants of the gang in the area who have to be brought to book.
As part of efforts at stepping up police operational strategy, the police have deployed plain-clothes investigators into the community to gather intelligence and increased police patrols and snap checks. Emergency meeting
The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Christian Tetteh Yohonu, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the Odorkor District Police Command, which has jurisdiction over the area, had been directed to provide regular patrols to ensure that the lives of the residents were protected.
To strengthen security in the various commands in the region, the Regional Commander met all senior officers and asked them to intensify patrols in their commands.
“We consider it as a hoax and that the people behind the notice are cowards,” Mr Yohonu said.
That, he said, was because “in many areas where robbery had occurred, the robbers never informed their victims in advance”. No money paid
He said even though the notice was seen late last year, “up to now nobody has paid any money to them and the people behind the notice have not been able to carry out their threats. It was a means that the suspected gang wanted to use to solicit money from the residents”.
The police, he said, would continue to strengthen intelligence gathering and its security system to ensure that everybody in Accra “and not at Agape alone, lives in peace”.
Mr Yohonu said as a result of the effective strategies put in place, the police had been able to stamp its authority on robbery in the country. Background
A gang which calls itself the ARA has been harassing residents of Agape near Accra to pay not less than GH¢500 per tenant in each household or risk facing its wrath.
The gang had given the residents of the community a deadline of December 30, 2013 to pay the amount but the residents failed to meet that deadline.
One of the residents told the Daily Graphic that they lived in fear, since they did not know when the gang might strike.
It all started in December, 2013 when the residents woke up to find notices posted on their walls, gates, electricity poles and other places, directing them to pay the said amount through MTN mobile money.
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