CONTROL ARMED ROBBERY IN UPPER WEST — NAA LOGGAH (PAGE 22, AUGUST 3, 2010)

THE Upper West Regional platform on disaster reduction has called for immediate solutions to a number of major challenges currently facing the region.
They are domestic and highway armed robbery, flood, wind, rainstorms and food security.
Addressing a news conference in Wa, the Chairman of the platform, Naa Robert Loggah, said between January and June, this year, eight major robberies had occurred in the region with serious consequences.
He said apart from those robberies, there were other major ones outside the jurisdiction of the Upper West Regional Police Command during which almost all the victims were raped, maimed or killed with impunity.
Naa Loggah said the first incident involved a Controller and Accountant General vehicle returning from official duties in Accra which was attacked and the driver shot dead, other persons on board suffered serious injuries from gun shots and severe beatings on the Wa–Bambo–Techiman highway.
“The second incident which also occurred in May, this year, involved students from tertiary educational institutions in the region. One girl was raped, a colossal amount of money as well as mobile phones were seized on the Tumu–Bolga highway,” he added.
Naa Loggah identified the cause of floods in the region as farming along river banks, building on water courses and use of drains as garbage dumps.
On food security, he attributed the situation to smuggling of farm inputs to neighbouring Burkina Faso, lack of storage facilities, among others.
Naa Loggah suggested preventive measures such as the establishment of emergency operation centres to patrol Tinga and its environs, the Wa–Bamboi-Techiman, Wa–Hamile, Wa–Bolgatanga and Sawla – Damango Fulfuso highways, to address the situation.
He suggested that “There must be joint military/police patrols in the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern Regions while installation communication masts within Maluwe–Tinga and Tumu–Nakong catchment areas must be installed by telecommunication companies.”
Naa Loggah also urged the government to come out with a land use policy to include village planning and a design of structures to withstand windstorms by encouraging the round structures and use of appropriate building materials.
He called for the establishment of a disaster fund to be started by the government, while information sharing must be encouraged.
Naa Loggah expressed the hope that the concerns raised would promptly be responded to by the government and other organisations in the country since “disaster management is everybody’s business.”