'Taliban' Strikes in Accra - 2 Butchered To Death

Two persons are feared dead and others injured following an attack they suffered yesterday afternoon at the hands of a group calling itself the Taliban Boys, at the Konkonba Market in Accra. They were hacked to death in broad daylight while three others suffered multiple wounds at the hands of their aggressors and had to be rushed to the Police Hospital for treatment.

One of those who perished in the mayhem, Alhassan Fuseini, suffered a similar attack shortly after the assumption of power by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He was attacked by some youth from the rival NDC who had ordered him to leave the market in a show of force.

He had a bloody face and at the time DAILY GUIDE met him six months ago, it was thought that he had lost an eye. The remains of the dead were later removed by the Police some hours after the attack.

An eyewitness, in her narration about what she thought sparked the trouble between the pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) Taliban Boys and New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters, said she overheard some youth remarking that “they are back. This time we would not spare them.”

Within a short time, the lady whose name is being withheld, said there was commotion which left a number of dead bodies around the Agbogbloshie Police Post.

The Taliban Boys, made up of known persons in the market which serves as a residence for the youth who mostly deal in scrap metals in and around Accra, are said to have started the trouble which led to the avoidable bloodshed.

According to another eyewitness, Felix Sunu, the assailants used machetes, axes, iron rods, stones and other crude weapons to kill their victims.

They were said to be yelling blood-curdling screams of victory as they carried out the dastardly act.

The eyewitness said it was noon and as he sought fresh air outside his office, he saw the unfolding cold-blooded murder in broad daylight.

Sunu said he saw a young man running away from a groupof persons wielding cutlasses.

The person being chased tried to jump over a wall of a cold store but fell back whereupon some 20 men pounced upon him, butchering him from all angles.

According to the eyewitness, they carried out the act as if they were cutting up an animal.

The Greater Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Dompreh, speaking to the media, confirmed the death of two persons with three others suffering various degrees of life threatening injury.

The Police PRO added that they rescued two others from the hands of their assailants, going further to state that investigations are ongoing. A detachment of some policemen has been deployed to the location.

A certain Prince Kamel, an NPP executive in the local party office at the market, told DAILY GUIDE the trouble started following the return to the place by some party persons who were chased out by their NDC counterparts soon after President John Evans Atta Mills took over the administration of the country.

Having stayed in the North for some time, they returned to Accra but stayed outside the market, he said. After a while, they became fed up with staying idle and so decided to return to their places of work at the market, he added.

Prince said, “Some of us went to the Jamestown Police Station and met the District Commander, DSP Alex and the Crime Officer Eklu and told them about how our people wanted to return to the place.”

They were led to the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Rose Atenga Bio, who Prince said asked whether they could not find alternative accommodation elsewhere and to engage in some other occupations.

The Commander, he went on, warned that should their return unleash trouble she would arrest all of them.

“The next thing I heard was that trouble had erupted at the market” Prince narrated as the brother of one of the deceased persons sat and listened melancholically.

No arrests were made after the attack and now Alhassan Fuseini has finally passed away at the hands of perhaps those who sought his life.

Armed with cutlasses and other deadly weapons, the Talibans are said to be unleashing a reign of terror in the sprawling slum, collecting taxes from the remnants of NPP youth sharing the facility with them even before yesterday’s incident.

The Konkonba Market is a den of all manner of illegalities from gun-running to offering shelter to armed robbers.

It also serves as a conduit for transporting weapons to the northern parts of the country.

The place is peopled by mostly Dagombas whose political allegiance to the NPP and NDC is so deep that their differences has remained a source of tension which occasionally erupts in confrontations as witnessed yesterday. The chieftaincy problem is also prominent in this slum.

Also present in the slum are Nanumbas, Mamprusis and others but these rarely engage in confrontations as witnessed among the Dagombas.

The market extends to the Sodom and Gomorrah slum, areas which are due to be demolished by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) sometime at the end of the year, according to official information.