Residents of Korle-Nkwanta, a suburb of Koforidua in the New Juaben Municipality, are living in fear due to the rampant attacks of armed robbers in the community.
They have therefore appealed to the Eastern Regional Police Command for a police post in the area.
According to Mr. Yaw Owusu, the Assembly Member for the area, from January to March this year, more than 20 armed robbery cases had been recorded, whilst the victims lost many valuable goods including plasma televisions, home theatres, gas cookers and cylinders, clothes, jewels and cash running into thousands of cedis.
He said some of the victims were also subjected to beatings and cutlass wounds in the incidents that often occur at night.
Briefing the GNA at a meeting by the landlords and tenants of the community to introduce a 40-member neighborhood watch-dog committee by volunteers from Korle-Nkwanta and the satellite communities including Nyerede, Acheampong and Agavenya, he said the move had become necessary to protect themselves.
He said the police had been notified and so the members of the neighborhood committee would be trained by the police and every household would contribute an amount to be decided later, to be used in paying allowances and other logistics for the committee members.
The assemblyman also appealed to the churches in the area to support the security arrangements by setting one Sunday in a month to raise funds to help prevent crime.
In a speech read on his behalf, Police superintendent Richardson Kumeko, the Municipal Police Commander, urged the people to be security conscious by weeding their surroundings and being inquisitive to question suspicious characters in the neighborhood.
He commended them for the initiative in forming the watch-dog committee, and advised them to identify a location for the police post/station to enhance the security situation in the area.
–
Source: GNA