Court remands alleged Bawku criminals

Accra, July 4, GNA -- Six people who were arrested in connection with the ethnic conflict at Bawku on Friday appeared before the Osu Magistrate's Court in Accra charged with murder and robbery which they allegedly committed between December 2007 and May 2008 at festivals, curfew hours and Market days.

They are Adamu Salifu, a filling station manager, Haruna Ibrahim, mechanic, Karim Alhassan, Karim Amali, Sallam Atinga and Teminu Adam. The court did not take their plea.

The Judge, Mr Emmanuel Bart-Plunge Brew, remanded them into prison custody to reappear on July 29, 2008. Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Patrick Morkeh, told the court that on December 31, 2007 whilst the chiefs and people of Bawku Traditional Area were celebrating their annual Samanpid festival, Salifu and others now at large, went to Kariyame Market on motorbikes and started causing damage to property. ASP Morkeh said when they were confronted by a group led by one Iddrisu Issah, Salifu and his accomplice shot and killed two of them. After the murder, Salifu went into hiding until March 6, 2008 when he was spotted in Bawku and arrested.

ASP Morkeh said Haruna Ibrahim, a Kusasi and his accomplices, now at large, went to Poasem, a suburb of Bawku, during curfew hours with guns and cutlasses and ambushed a 32-year-old Muniru Adam, who had gone to defecate in a nearby bush. They killed and chopped off his head. The prosecutor said Ibrahim fled on a bicycle but was chased and arrested by a taskforce. However, his accomplices escaped. ASP Morkeh said the other accused persons, Karim Alhassan, Karim Amali and Sallam Adam, on May 16, 2008, murdered one Ayaaba Karim and robbed him of six cows at a village called Yarigungo, near Bemse in the Bawku district.

He said on February 13, 2008, Temil Adams, a revenue collector and his accomplices now at large, caused the death of one Yirimiah Alhassan, a 53-year-old educationist, by hitting him with an object from behind. The deceased had closed from his office at the Bawku Municipal Assembly and was riding his motorbike towards Bawku town when they hit him. He was died on admission at the hospital. 04 Jul. 08