Peki-Tsito security situation worsens

Ho, Oct. 16, GNA - The killing of a 70-year-old man on the outskirts of Peki-Dzogbati on Friday, in the newly created South Dayi District, has worsened the already fragile security situation in the Peki-Tsito Traditional areas.
Briefing journalists at the Residency on Saturday, Mr Kofi Duku Arthur, Volta Regional Police Commander, said a headless body (name unavailable) with a slit stomach was found in a bush by some inhabitants of the area and conveyed to the Peki Police Station.
He recounted a similar fashion in which two citizens of Tsito namely, Kudzo Girentsi and Yao Megbetor were found dead with some vital body parts missing on October 4, this year at Agata near Tsito-Awudome on the Accra-Ho highway.
Mr Arthur said the police were treating the incidents as purely murder cases as there was little evidence to link the killings to the protracted land impasse between the two traditional areas or for ritual purposes.
The Commander said sequel to the murders was a damage on the electricity transmission lines that serve the two traditional areas when unidentified men disrupted power supply by shooting the glass insulators on the transformer thereby plunging the area into total darkness. Mr Arthur however said a team of crack intelligence Police cum Military personnel had been beefed-up in the area to protect lives and property, in a situation, which appeared to be reprisal killings. Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister and Chairman of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) appealed to the chiefs and opinion leaders of the two traditional areas to show restraint as they hold the key in the early resolution of the impasse.
He said reprisal attacks and killings only endangered the lives of their people and constituents and further subjected them to insecurity and consternation.
Mr Owusu-Yeboa said the security personnel could not go beyond their statutory functions as ascribed by law and therefore appealed to the parties to co-operate with information that would help solve the murder puzzle, in order to defuse the mounting tension and insecurity in their areas.
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Yanyi-Akofur, Commander of the 66 Artillery Regiment said recent developments in the area, coupled with the modus operandi of the assailants, who ambush their victims just at the outskirts of the communities left much to be desired. He urged citizens in the area to volunteer information that would assist the security apparatus find the culprits in this murder jigsaw.