Police have clamped down on land guards-concentrated camp at Nyugbenya in the Ningo Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region last Wednesday.
The operation on August 11, 2021, led to the arrest of 16 persons including alleged financiers of the illegal group.
The operation was carried by the dreaded Anti Armed Robbery Unit (AARU) at the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the 'no-go' territory at Nyugbenya (Tsopoli) off the Tema-Aflao transcontinental highway.
It has been described as a major breakthrough in police's efforts at destabilising criminal bases.
Four suspects among those arrested have been identified by victims of their nefarious deeds during an identification parade that was conducted at the CID Headquarters.
The suspects are being processed for court for threats, causing bodily harm, among others.
The heavily armed Section of a group that was primarily deployed and tasked to literally liberate the residents of Nyugbenya sprang a surprise on the criminal elements by cordoning their comfort zone.
Interestingly, they were then embedded like grass cutters in the interspersed bushes and high grasses of the coastal savannah vegetation which also serve as hideouts for stockpiles of illegal weapons for strikes.
The armed security Section Leader gave command for the criminals to ground any arms in their possession. At this crucial moment, there was no other option to resist but to surrender, especially looking at the might of the attacking force.
A random search in the bushes uncovered a foreign-made weapon that police say have been illegally transferred to a member of the group
The suspects were first dispatched to the local Tsopoli Police Station where one Tawiah Sodjah who was on the intelligence radar of the police as one of the two livewires supplying constant power in the form of logistics for the outlawed group to function was fished out.
At the CID Headquarters, Alhaji Ayiku who police claimed jointly operates the illegal group with Sodjah was also apprehended to make the number.
A highly ranked officer at the Police Headquarters who preferred anonymity intimates to The Chronicle that the operation was triggered due to increasing Intelligence about harassments by armed land guards some of who have been 'imported' from Kasoa, Nima, Ashaiman joining hands with the local contents, resulting in the threat to security in the Nyugbenya enclave.
The source went on that the elements use their bases dotted in the bushes to launch scary attacks with offensive weapons on innocent targets in the locality and spanning the Southeastern half of the country.
It has become a common occurrence that people fear to move from Nyugbenya/Tsopoli to nearby Agortor and their farms without being attacked by the bandits, the senior officer opined.
The police source named quite a number of atrocities in the general area by land guards, some being in April this year's attack and shooting of a bulldozer operator and a number of persons in the middle of the town. Four persons who were arrested have since been put before the District Court.
The killing of a family of three including a five-year-old child whose bodies were set ablaze at Zutsukpo two years ago, docket on the case at the Attorney General's Office awaiting advice, the armed attack on a Fulani settlement and when the herders fought back, one of the criminals fell dead.
Last year during the Eid celebration, a Fulani herdsman was killed and two of his cattle were slaughtered for the occasion, the police boss lamented.
The paper's Inquisition into land guard operations in the Dangme speaking areas of the coastal belt has revealed a number of heinous crimes committed that are attributed to them, in some, in the form of contract killings.
These include the murders of a retired Airforce Officer in his home at Community 25, the Immigration Officer in his residence in Mataheko, slaughterings amongst the land guard group at its supposed fortified base in the Mataheko bushes where a police commander once informed the press that it was a self-acclaimed 'republic' for the courts even prohibited them from entering there to effect arrests of wanted persons.
The cold-blooded murder of the Dutch lady in broad daylight at New Sebrepor and that of the businessman in the opposite direction near Goshen School.
The attempted assassination of the Chief of Tokpo near Asutsuare, assassinations of the Chief of Sota and his elders travelling on the Afienya -Dodowa road on March 20, 2016, Nene Atsure Benta, Manklalo of Prampram on December 13, 2018, as he also travelled on the Afienya-Appolonia road.
The roll call of series of dastardly killings in that Dangme enclave suspected to have been carried out by elements with link to land guards would not be complete without that of Mrs Josephine Asante.
The then Marketing and Public Affairs Manager at the Tema Port of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) was found murdered in her Emef Hillview Estates near Afienya in the Ningo Prampram District.
--
The Chronicle newspaper