The Upper West Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP)Peter Ndekugri, has called for calm at Wa in the Upper West Region, following serial murders and disappearance of security guards from their places of work.
In a statement to the media, on Tuesday, following the disappearance of the fifth victim, 60-year-old Kwame Badigbee, a security guard at a private school at Wa, the Commander said the police was putting stringent measures in place to check the situation and also identify and bring the perpetrators to book.
“The regional police command will continue to roll out policies to augment the current proactive policies in place. There is the need for the public therefore to trust the police and exercise restraint for the collective achievement of desired results,” he indicated.
In line with the measures, the commandcalled for a consultation meeting on Wednesday with owners of facilities that engaged the services of private security guards and night watchmen on how to better protect them.
DCOP Ndekugri further directed tricycle operators to halt operations after 10:00p.m. and appealed to the residents to cooperate with the police to protect the security of the area.
In the last four months, three security guards were killed and two disappeared mysteriously from their respective place of work.
The issue which had causedpanic among residents drew a statement from the Waala Traditional Council appealing to the public to assist the police resolve the mystery, by volunteering information about suspicious persons.
The last incident which happened on Monday involved a 60-year-old man who did not return home from work on Monday and had still not been found at the time of filing this story.
According to WahiduBadigbee, first son of the victim, who together with other family members besieged the workplace of their father on Tuesday morning, the father of five did not return to his home in Charia, when he closed from work like he usually did.
“My father normally comes home from the school at 7:00 a.m. and proceeds to the farm but we did not see him on Monday and when we could not wait any longer, we reported the matter to the police because we all know what has been happening to security men in Wa recently,” he said.
He indicated that together with personnel dispatched by the police, they went to the school early Tuesday morning to search for their father who was nowhere to be found, but said they saw blood stains with broken pieces of cement block on the school’s compound, and also about 20 metres away from the school.
The headmaster of the school, Francis Babon Ayeng, said their attention was only drawn to the scene when the police and the family entered the school premises as the security man mostly left early in the morning, saying his absence that morning did not raise any unusual suspicion.
Meanwhile, the police were yet to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of the fourth security guard from his workplace at Nakori, a suburb of Wa, where he was reported missing about three weeks ago.
Bodies of the first three victims were, however, discovered with certain parts missing and were buried shallowly in uncompleted buildings around their respective places of work.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
