Sankore Sits On Time Bomb

Security Alert!

…Group undermines the sacred power of the Judiciary

…Teenagers, 15 to 17 being in gangsterism and drugs

By Sammy Agyei

Snippets of information reaching the offices of the Front Page indicate that there has been general insecurity in the Brong Ahafo town of Sankore, with the once peaceful town now becoming a haven for violence and robbery.

A thorough investigation by the paper and our sources within the Police in the region have confirmed that, there has been general insecurity in the area and if the authorities who are put in charge of security in the country do not move in to contain the situation it will erupt one day like a volcano.

A group of young men in the town have constituted themselves into a gang and have taken the law into their hands to always violently create problems in the town and has no respect for the power of the Judiciary. This has created a state of fear and panic in the area.

These young men have established a base in the town close to a popular hotel called “AFTER SIX”. This is where “wee” and other narcotic drugs are sold to unsuspecting youth of the town.

Additionally, they have recruited young boys and girls aged between 15 to 17 years who are being trained in the art of gansterism and wee smoking.

The stock in trade of this group is to attack innocent citizens, traders and strangers in the town. This they do with impunity using deadly weapons such as cutlasses and guns. Nobody, not even the police dare arrest any of them anytime they attack. They claim to be untouchable.

What makes the situation serious is that they have no respect for the police and they treat them with contempt. This has resulted in a state of lawlessness in Sankore.

“We therefore live in a state of each one for himself and God for us all and survival of the fittest which indeed belongs to the ancient days when societies and communities were not well organized and structured”, a citizen of the town revealed to this paper.

Authorities of the town have consequently appealed for help to address the problem. The petition which was copied to all the security authorities in the region and the Ghana Peace Council revealed that in some instances some of these boys had been put before court by means of warrant for some offences committed but have with the impunity failed to appear before the court.

A security officer who this paper spoke on condition of anonymity said this group had degraded the Abonyere and Bonsambepo forest and the forestry officials who confronted them were beaten, with cutlass wounds inflected on them. “An excerpt was shown on T.V. 3 recently”, he added.

“Sir the likelihood of this generating into a serious security problem in future cannot be ruled out. There is therefore the need for a prompt and swift response to this problem to avoid any future expression. This is so because it is a fact that the freedom, the power and the will of the people cannot be subdued all the times. The likelihood of the people asserting themselves in future can’t be ruled out and if it happens, the consequence can be disastrous,” the security person lamented.

The communal violence that is being witnessed in some towns in the country of late should be our guide in our attempt to solve this problem.