Three shot dead in renewed fighting in Bawku

Bolgatanga, Sept. 6, GNA - The people of Bawku Municipality have been ordered to go indoors at 1300 hours Sunday until 0600 hours Monday following shooting incidents that left three dead on Sunday. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Mr Musah Abdulai, Bawku Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) said "the emergency curfew" would be assessed on Monday before further decision is taken.

Mr Abdulai said armed robbers mounted a roadblock on the Bawku to Sankasi road at dawn and were robbing traders, who were travelling to Sankasi Market in Northern Togo. Sundays are Sankasi market days. He said when one Rufia Sumani, a Mamprusi, who was travelling in a taxicab, got to where the armed robbers had laid ambush, near the Zuzongnatinga community, and were robbing the travellers at gunpoint; he refused to stop when the robbers signalled him to stop, so they shot him in the head and killed him.

When word got to the relatives of Sumani they took up arms to avenge him and in the process two others were shot dead before the security personnel deployed in the Bawku Municipality could restore order.

Mr Abdulai said security personnel would patrol the road and mount permanent road checks at reasonable intervals to scare-off armed robbers, who often robbed people travelling on that road. He noted that there would be the need to increase the number of security personnel to take up that exercise.

The MCE said as at 1200 noon Sunday there was an uneasy calm in the Township while security personnel had been deployed at vantage points in the area to ensure that people did not engage in acts of violence. 6 Sept. 09