Police, Churches collaborate to fight crime in Koforidua

The Koforidua Local Council of Churches and the Eastern Regional Police Command have met to see how best they could collaborate to have crime free Christmas this year in the area.

The meeting was first of its kind and was aimed at discussing and finding solutions to the spate of residential robbery in the New Juaben Municipality.

The Clergy used the platform to call for all security numbers in the country to be toll free.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Akuriba Yaagy, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, disclosed that his outfit would deploy a total of 108 policemen to patrol the municipality.

He advised that to avoid duplication, keys in the homes should be given to trusted neighbours to keep.

DCOP Yaagy added that, hotels should change their key locks into biometric or electronic cards to make it difficult for robbers to have access to those premises.

He said security cameras, bells and screen sensors should be fixed in hotel rooms and homes for security reasons and advised the public to build relationships with each other.

DCOP Yaagy pleaded with the public to minimize their tones when speaking in public places to hinder vital information for public consumption.

He said since it was the duty and responsibility of both the citizen and the police to fight crime, “the citizen must give detail information of crime scenes, robbers, areas of residence to the police for immediate and appropriate action.”

The Police Commander asked the public to call the police emergency toll free numbers (0342022569, 0299200280) for Koforidua Information Office, and (0302980660) for Accra Information Office, to report any suspicion and crimes in their areas.

Rev. Dr George Sunnu of the Grace Outreach Church and a victim of an armed robbery attack, suggested that the Police patrol team should be adequately resourced to fight robbers, since his own experience showed that “the team is afraid of losing their lives.”

Rev. Samuel Antwi of the Alive Bethel Church said to protect eyewitnesses and victims from being noticed, there should be screens for people to hide behind and identify robbers.