The recent spate of unexplained killings in the Ashanti Region is generating concerns among sections of the Ghanaian public. There is strong suspicion that this could be a repeat of the mysterious serial killing of women that rocked the country before the 2000 elections.
Mysterious serial killing of women, especially in Accra, partly caused the defeat of the then ruling National Democratic Congress in the 2000 general elections.
With barely five months to the November 2016 elections, Ghana’s most populous region and the stronghold of the opposition New Patriotic Party, has been rocked by strange killings, mostly suspected armed robbery attacks.
While a special anti-terrorist squad from the Police Headquarters in Accra has been dispatched to Kumasi to beef up security in the region following the killings, some are raising questions about the manner in which the attacks are been carried out and the region involved.
To some, the method of the attacks are reminiscent of election 2000 episode where women were killed and their bodies littered the streets in the nation’s capital to create a state of insecurity that further caused regime change.
One political pundit told The aL-hAJJ that “The killings in the Ashanti region cannot be said to be armed robbery attacks. I don’t have any evidence but the manner in which they are carried out clearly shows that it is beyond armed robbery. The region has been targeted by gangsters to kill person in the name of armed robbery, and this to me, is clearly connected to politics like it happened in the 2000 elections.”
Parts of the Ashanti region, particularly Kumasi, have come under siege from gangs suspected to be armed robbers in recent time.
Last week Thursday, a policeman was shot and killed by suspected robbers at the Open Space Hotel in Dechemouso with another person surviving gunshots wounds in the attack.
Two days after this incident, another person was also shot dead at Ahenema Kokoben when he was attacked in what was also suspected to be yet another robbery incident.
Few days after these gory incidents, a polling station chairman of the New Patriotic Party for Apotuogya DA Primary in the Bosomtwe District, Baah Tweneboah popularly known as Agya Baah, was also shot dead by suspected armed robbers.
Prior to these incidents, there has been spate of shootings to death of persons in suspected robbery attacks in the region. This has further been compounded by recent violence in Krofrom in the Kumasi Metropolis as well as clashes between Muslim youth and leaders of Agogo and Tafo.
Following these happenings, especially ahead of a crucial election in November, TV3 network reported sources at the Police Regional Headquarters to have said those crimes are not mere armed robbery attacks as they suspect terrorism, considering the manner with which the criminals conduct their operation.
“They don’t just rob, they kill,” the source was quoted to have said. These killings, the police say are becoming too many in Kumasi, the regional capital of Ashanti
Meanwhile, The aL-hAJJ’s intelligence has gathered that these series of attacks resulting in deaths ahead of the elections is a decoy for some unscrupulous persons wishing to foment trouble before, during, after the November polls.
“This year’s elections, particularly in the Ashanti region, promises to be a keen contest; the two leading political parties are at each other’s throat in the region. And from what we saw in the 2000 elections, it would not be farfetched to read political meanings into what is happening in the region,” a resident in Kumasi noted.
Adding, “This thing could be extended to Accra because it appears the criminals have succeeded in taking over the region. Now that they have succeeded in the Ashanti region their next target could be Accra because that is where we have bulk of the people aside Ashanti region.”
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