Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Nathan Kofi Boakye has revealed that the most hardened robbers in the country are based in the Ashanti Region.
“This is because the armed robbery [in the Region] is homegrown.”
According to him, armed robbers in other regions may not come from those regions, but those in the Ashanti Region are locals who have created dens and menacing innocent residents.
He, therefore, called for public confidence to be built in order to get whistleblowers out of the hitherto fear-gripped residents.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) made these remarks on Saturday, January 24, when he took the hot seat on TV3’s Hot Issues.
Prior to his appointment as the Regional Commander of the Ashanti Region, the lawyer-cum-biochemist has served in similar positions in the Greater Accra and Western regions.
“There is a lot [more] of armed robbery in Ashanti Region than any region I have worked in,” he revealed, adding that politics has also compounded security in the regional capital as it has eaten deep into the people.
“Kumasi is a political hotbed,” he says.
But he assured that discipline is being instilled as crime has marginally reduced.
He observed that gangs formed prior to his arrival in the Region have ceased to be.
No one can call himself commander in the region, he said.
“I am the only commander who can use legitimate force,” he stated as warning to the various gangs upon his appointment; pointing out that, that made residents nickname him ‘Commander One’, an accolade, he claims, scares: “Because they can call you Commander One today, tomorrow you can be Commander Zero”.
He commended the Service on its visibility programme, adding that it will be sustained in the Ashanti Region in order to reduce crime considerably.
Source: GhanaWeb
