ACP Akrofi releases guns to land guards

…As Nungua Chief And Elders Petition President Kufuor

THE SHOCKINGLY crooked manner in which the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander ACP Asiedu Akrofi snubbed time-tested Police guidelines and instead, released 12 Action Pump Machine Guns back to an arrested group of 13 dangerous land guards, is a huge source of worry to the chiefs and elders of Nungua. Also released by Mr. Akrofi in a show of further muscle-flexing were all 13 of the brazen-muscled land guards, who had engaged a contingent of armed Police personnel in a two-hour gun battle until they were subdued by a reinforcement team from the Greater Accra Regional Police Headquarters.

For his blatant show of recalcitrance and disregard for established Police procedures, his superiors, led by the deputy Inspector General of Police (Administration), Mrs. Mills Robertson, have summoned him to appear with all seized documents the Regional Commander clawed from the grips of the CID, handling the case, The Sun has learnt.

Mr. Akrofi’s bosses say, he acted unprofessionally when he retrieved the docket on the case from the CID investigator known only as SAVIOUR, only to release the group without pressing charges in an era armed land guards are frowned upon by the law.

The Regional Commander is also reported to have told a meeting of the two assembled factions in the Nungua-Otinshi disputed 412.60 acreage of land case that, the deputy IGP is a lawyer and he (the Commander) is also a lawyer.

Last Saturday at 10 a.m. while the sane world carried itself along in peace, the land guards, led by one Joseph Obodai Torgbor, a settler on the Otinshi land but originally from Aneho-Togo, engaged the Police in a fierce gun battle as sporadic fire sprayed the atmosphere.

The Police had been called in by the Nungua chiefs and elders, following the flouting of an earlier Court order that restrained Obodai and his land guards, from further encroachment.

After two hours of incessant exchange of fire, the Police swooped in to discover that an underground bunker had a cache of arms, and so retrieved the 12 Action Pump Machine Guns to help with investigations.

They were then hurled to the Regional Police Headquarters in Accra. It was at this juncture that ACP Akrofi came in to handover the weapons back to the land guards, unchained the handcuffs, and retrieved the docket from CID Investigator, rendering all efforts of the Police rescue team including the gun battle, nonsense.

What further amazed the chiefs and elders of Nungua battling to retrieve the occupied stool lands through the law court was, the zeal and enthusiasm the troubled ACP rose to defend the settler, Obodai Torgbor and his land guards. At one stage, ACP Akrofi told both factions that the land guards were “children” of Obodai, even though investigations have established that the guards are northerners, and therefore have nothing in common with Obodai who hails from Aneho in Togo.

“One such defensively provocative statement by the Regional Commander was when he claimed that, he also has large tracts of land at Akim Oda which his children arm-guard all the time to ward off encroachers,” a disturbed Odehe Kpakpa King Odaifio Wulentsi III, Nungua Mantse stated.

In a strong worded petition dated November 12, to the Minister for National Security and copied to His Excellency President John Agyekum Kufour, the chief and the elders called for a full scale investigation into the conduct of the Regional Police Commander ACP Akrofi. “It would not be out of place to say the least that with this attitude of the Regional Commander, there would certainly be a confidential crisis between us (Nungua) and the Regional Commander. His attitude would be a discouraging factor in the collaboration between the public and the police in the fight against the armed robbery menace and other criminal activities in the region,” stated the petition. “Again by this attitude of the regional commander, does it mean that we should resort to our own means of enforcing security on our properties? What sort of society are we developing by that tendency?, the petitioners questioned.

When reached for his version of events as to why he chose to release the land guards, ACP Akrofi retorted whether there was a law that abhors the release of guilty culprits. But when his attention was drawn to the fact that he did indeed release the 12 Action Pump Machine Guns and seized the docket on the case from the investigator, an obviously stammering Akrofi said he could not comment on them and referred THE SUN to the Regional Public Relations officer. Which ever way the public viewed developments in the case, they certainly have implications for the office of the National Security in that, there looks to be a potential powder-keg ready to explode, should the real custodians of the land choose to meet brute force with brute force.

It has not been established though that ACP Akrofi who goes on retirement next month, flouted established Police orders, in return for parcels of land for his troubles.