'Nkonya and Alavanyo Residents shielding perpetrators’ - Police Commander

Three people died and others were severally injured in sporadic shootings

Volta Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Nana Asomah Hinneh, has bemoaned the refusal of residents of Nkonya and Alavanyo traditional areas in cooperating with the police administration to arrest perpetrators involved in the renewed clashes which led to the killing of three persons few days ago.

Three people died and others were severally injured in sporadic shootings during an upsurge in violence believed to be linked to an old land dispute between the people of Alavanyo-Kpeme and Nkonya-Tayi in the Volta Region.

Speaking on Ultimate FM yesterday, ACP Hinneh explained that unwillingness by residents to feed police with information of perpetrators was making their work difficult.

According to him, the suspects are walking freely because residents were reluctant in naming and shaming and wondered why residents would be doing such criminal acts.

He indicated that the residents were tight-lipped about the information of perpetrators, adding that the police were doing their own investigations without the help of residents.

“It is a little bit daisy, difficult, if you go there people are tight-lipped, everybody is tight-lipped, ask your correspondent there. Nobody is prepared to cooperate with you.

…you can’t force evidence or facts from anybody. So we are there on the ground doing our own investigations small, small. But it may take some time before you can get there. If the residents cooperate with us, we will get there, we need the support of everybody,” he appealed.

He assured that calm has been restored in the area but admitted that there was an uneasy calm among residents because of the killings.

“Well it is a little bit difficult to make arrest,… some people were distilling ‘Akpeteshie’ and they were ambushed, two were killed and one seriously injured, two managed to escape, when asked, they were not able to tell us the suspects names, all that they said was they heard gunshots and ran for cover, in such situations, whom are you going to arrest.