A leading member of the Wa Naa Community Watchdog Committee established by the Overlord of the Waala Traditional Area was attacked by some hoodlums in Wa Municipal of the Upper West Region on Monday.
The bandits, numbering about 15, according to an eyewitness, ransacked and vandalized the mobile phone shop (Bush Doc. Solutions) of the victim, Bushran Khidr, widely known as Bush Phone Doctor, and also bolted with all his mobile phones in the shop, running into thousands of Ghana Cedis in broad daylight.
Even though Bushran himself was not present at the time of the onslaught, they beat up his sales boy manning the shop at the time mercilessly, together with a customer who managed to flee for their lives.
Reports say the bandits, of the group known as Maimi Brotherhood located at Wapaani, a suburb in Wa Municipal, who are alleged to be involved in drug peddling, were enraged over the arrest of one of their members caught selling the same and therefore decided to take the law into their own hands in that heinous manner.
The bandits, armed with machetes, clubs, crowbars, hammers, and other offensive weapons, reportedly started the barbaric act by destroying the CCTV cameras of the shop to avoid being captured before unleashing their terror on the shop, scuttling glasses, phone accessories, and everything they came across in the shop.
However, despite smashing the CCTV cameras to hide their identities before carrying out the barbaric act, luck eluded them as one of the CCTV cameras managed to expose some of them, leading to the arrest of one of their leaders by the police while the rest are still on the run.
The Watchdog Committee by Naa Fuseini Pelpuo IV, Overlord of the Waala Traditional Area, became necessary after the re-emergence of serial killings that had rocked the area since 2022, claiming 17 lives in the process.
His Eminence, with his elders, therefore decided to recruit some young men in collaboration with the police command to form the committee to help with the security of the area.
In addition to that mandate, the committee was also tasked to help clamp down on drug peddlers within the municipality whose activities continue to be a danger to the youth of the region as drug abuse is on the ascendency, especially tramadol abuse.
Since its inception, residents have been giving great rave reviews over its impact on improving the security situation in the municipality.
Many residents say this unfortunate incident is a test case for the Wa Naa's palace as the action of the hoodlums smacks of a complete defiance of the traditional authority.
They also questioned why nobody made an effort to call the police when the young men were spotted armed to their teeth with those offensive weapons moving in droves, which should have raised eyebrows since security is a shared responsibility.
Meanwhile, attempts to get a reaction from the victim and shop owner, Bushran Khidr, were unsuccessful as he prefers not to comment on the issue for now, since investigations by the police are ongoing.