Twenty-four hour guard over private armoury!

About one kilometer from the Tema Motorway roundabout on the Akosombo road is the portion of the otherwise low savannah. There is a signboard with the inscription ?Mackba Farm? which from outside depicts a poultry farm. Users of the busy Akosombo road and commercial operators at the Timber Market at Ashiaman have been recently taken aback as to what might be happening at the nim tree forested position of the road.

Military presence has been noticed continuously for about a month now. Performing twenty-four hour guard duty. The soldiers are armed to the teeth, with assault rifles, their presence causing a continual stir among terrified and bemused passers-by.

Chronicle?s investigation has revealed that there is more to the poultry farm. There is a magazine built by a civilian licensed armed dealer, which has become an object of controversy between the police and the army.

Information obtained has it that a report got the military of the presence of the magazine, allegedly stockpiled with dangerous arms. The police were informed but quickly communicated back to their friends that they are aware of the existence of the armoury, like other civilian operated magazine dotted all over the country.

The Police Arms and Ammunition Unit, which has one of the two keys to the armoury (the owner has the other), reportedly provided the caretaker, who is said to be the son of the owner?s friend, to come and make clarification. Chronicle gathered that the owner, one Kwame Addo, has gone outside the country and that was why the magazine had been left in the hands of a caretaker. The military would not take chances and so deployed personnel?s to guard the place, in spite of the position made known by the police.

A senior source at the police headquarters told the Chronicle that the owner is operating the place within the confines of the law and added that the appropriate authorities are aware of the existence of that magazine, which entry is done by both owner and the police at the same time.

According to the highly placed source, inventory of the content of the magazine is available to them and that everything is intact. The soldiers? presence, he said, is at their own discretion. The military authorities at the First Battalion of Infantry (IBN), Michel Camp, who are providing the guard at the site are of the view that the police have enough information of the magazine than the soldiers do.

According to them, they had a report, which suggested that an armoury had been built in the zone, but later got to know that the police were aware of its presence. As to why they are not withdrawing their men to allay fears harbored by the numerous commuters, the IBN senior sources said that they are waiting for further instructions from the southern sector commander, Brigadier J.B. Danquah, which may mean carrying an inspection of the positioned containers or withdrawing finally.