Man shot dead in Yendi gun battle identified as Ghana Audit Service staff

The man shot dead in a gun battle near the Gbewaa Palace at Yendi in the Northern Region has been identified by the Police as Gadaffi Hassan Mohammed, a staff of the Ghana Audit Service at Tamale.

He was found dead Friday in an abandoned building near the palace after a late night police shootout between some unknown people in the area and security personnel just moments to the performance of traditional rites to enskine the new Ya-Naa.

Mohammed was with two others in the building who were arrested by the police-cum-military team with AK 47 assault rifle.

His body was retrieved from a room with talisman around his waist. He had a Guinness bottle, another talisman and a concoction in calabash lying around him.

The two alleged accomplices, who have since their arrest refused to speak to the Police, are currently being held by the Yendi Divisional Police Command.

DSP Yussif Tanko who confirmed the latest development in the case said the two will be arraigned on charges of possession of fire arms without permission and defying curfew after investigations.

Police report say the incident happened at exactly 21:25 hours Friday when enskinement rituals were about to commence at the Gbewaa Palace for the newly selected Ya-Naa, Naa Abubakar Mahama.

Some unknown persons were said to have fired shots into the area at a time that a dusk to dawn curfew was in full force, a situation that forced security personnel at post to return fire.

“Security personnel on ground returned fire towards the said direction and pursued the shooters inside the building after police and military had surrounded it” Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer DSP Mohammed Yussif Tanko confirmed to 3news.com.

“One unidentified man believe to be in his 35th year was also found dead in the compound of said house; that is where the firing was coming from”, he added.

Others who fired shots from three different directions around the same time were pursued but they managed to escape arrest.

The police say the incident did not interfere with the performance of the enskinement rites which started at about 00:45hr of January 19, 2019 with drumming and firing of musketry under tight security.

“The activities came to a close at about 05:30hrs. No additional unusual incident recorded,” DSP Tanko said.