15 more suspects arrested over Tamale violence

A combined Police and Military team deployed to calm the communal violence in Tamale have so arrested 103 persons in connection with the disturbances that erupted in the Municipality on Tuesday.

The Northern Regional Police Commander, David Akrofi Asiedu told the Ghana News Agency that the suspects were being kept in custody at the Kamina Military Barracks due to the limited space at the Police cells.

He said personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had been sent to the Barracks to interrogate the suspects, but he could, however, not tell how soon the interrogation would be completed or the next line of action to be taken after the interrogation.

He appealed to the government to provide the Police with modern cell facilities to keep criminals and suspects in view of the volatile situation in Dagbon. Meanwhile, the situation in the Municipality is returning to normalcy as economic activities have bounced back.

The Minister of the Interior, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, on Wednesday signed an Executive Instrument imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the Dagbon Traditional Area. The Curfew (Dagbon Traditional Area) Instrument 2003 said the curfew, which shall be for a period of seven days from Wednesday shall run between 1800 hours and 0600 hours.

It said Persons within the area shall not be out of doors between the hours specified except under written permission of the Minister or a person authorised on that behalf by the Minister.

The Instrument said members of the security services - the Armed Forces; Police; Prisons; Immigration; Custom, Excise and Preventive Services; Security and Intelligence Agencies - and any other person duly authorised in writing by the Minister to undertake a specific task shall be exempted.

The Instrument said those exempt might arrest without warrant any person who breaches the curfew. "The Regional Minister for the Northern Region may suspend the operation of the curfew imposed by this Instrument in the whole or any part of the specified area and may terminate the suspension of the curfew and restore the curfew as and when he thinks fit."

The Minister had told reporters earlier that the curfew was being imposed with immediate effect following the clashes in Tamale, which could spread to other areas in the area. A Junior Secondary School graduate was shot dead and his body burnt in renewed clashes between New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) youths in Tamale on Wednesday.

Several houses and an NPP campaign van were also burnt. The cause of the violence was not immediately known but it was believed to be linked to Tuesday's clash between the youth of the two parties.

Business activities in the Tamale Municipality virtually came to a halt as a result of the confusion with several commuters stranded at the lorry station. Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a Resolution for the re-imposition of the State of Emergency in the Dagbon Traditional Area.