After several unsuccessful attempts to fish out the suspected assailants believed to be shooting and killing innocent residents of Nkonya and Alavanyo, a crack team of investigators from the Police Headquarters has been deployed to the area.
Members of the team were drawn from the Homicide Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service. it is expected to undertake in-depth investigations into the recent killings and bring the perpetrators for prosecution.
This was revealed by the Volta Regional Security Council (REGSEC) over the weekend when another person was reportedly shot dead last Friday.
According to the chairman of the REGSEC who happens to be the Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Letsa, the invitation of the investigators had become necessary because he believed the killings would stop when the assailants were arrested and prosecuted.
He expressed disappointment that despite the dialogue and calls for calm, the shootings had not ended. He recounted how distraught he was with last Friday’s shooting which left a 35-year-old man dead at Alavanyo-Dzogbedze.
Anane Dewu was killed by unknown assailants, in what appeared to be a targeted killing at Alavanyo.
The incident happened when a group of mourners were on their way to bury the 13-year-old boy, Prince Kwawukutse, who was also shot dead two weeks ago at his home at Alavanyo minutes after he had returned from school.
Just last week at Alavanyo-Kpeme, a 62-year-old woman, Elizabeth Anku, was also shot dead on her farm – 100 meters away from her house – when she reportedly went to pick some mangoes.
An assembly member of the area, Raymond Tsokor, who has been speaking to the media, noted that in all of the incidents, the gunmen fled the scenes after the shooting, making it difficult for the security personnel in the area to apprehend them.
He said the latest incident that happened last Friday had thrown the entire community into a state of shock, fear and panic, especially when it happened during the burial of a victim of the dastardly act.
There has been a recent resurgence in hostilities between the two neighbours – Nkonya and Alavanyo – over a century old land dispute. This year, the first killings were recorded in April involving three persons, at Nkonya. Since then there have been about four killings.
The extension of the dusk to dawn curfew and the presence of the police and the military in the two towns seem to be having little impact as far as peace and stability are concerned.
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