Gang storms police station to remove inmate from cell

Police in the Northern region fired more than four live bullets at a group of violent protesters who invaded the regional headquarters Tuesday afternoon to forcibly remove detained suspects from their custody.

The incident created a chaotic scene for several moments at the command as officers reached out for more weapons from the police armory to counter the invasion.

Many senior officers including the Regional police spokesman, DSP Mohammed Yussif Tanko, were hounded out from their offices by the multiple gunshots and as they stood and watched their men emanating from directions to stop the raid.

Starr News gathered that the protesters were youth from Vitting, an outskirt suburb of Tamale, and the attempted break-in was to remove a colleague who was arrested last Saturday for attacking a contractor working on a piece of land.

The contractor was said to be illegally erecting structures on the land which belonged to the Ambarriya Senior High School in the community.

The parties have been disputing over the land for several years now until the youth of the community joined the litigation in support of the Ambariyya school authorities.

DSP Tanko spoke to the media after the failed attack. He said the land was a subject of longstanding dispute between the community youth and the contractor.

“Last Saturday, we received a complaint from a faction involved in a land litigation or land conflict that they had a problem with another person over the piece of land, and the complainant had sand, blocks and cement on the land; so somebody had gone to spoil about bags of the cement and a number of the blocks broken, and the suspect was identify to us. So this morning, we managed and had the suspect arrested”

“So, in the course of investigations, a number of people came to the secure his release but we made them to understand that he had mentioned some names and we needed those persons to also assist in the investigations but they became violent and try to forcibly take the suspect from the police station”.

DSP Tanko said four more people have been arrested following the attack on the police charge office