The Chronicle’s independent investigation has established that no weapon has gone missing from the armoury of the Northern Regional Police Command in Tamale.
This is contrary to the Auditor General’s Report for 2020 that five AK47 Assault Rifles have gone missing from the police regional armoury.
The paper’s investigation revealed that the assault rifles reported missing by the AG, were rather stolen from police personnel when on duty between February 2019 and July 2020, at snap checkpoints in the Tamale municipality.
In one of the incidents on the Kumbugu road on Tuesday July 30, 2019 at which two AK 47 Assault Rifles were stolen, one Policewoman, Cpl Agatha Nana Nabin, was shot dead by the attackers who took charge of her signed weapon.
Another Policewoman, L/Cpl Josephine Awo Atoproke, on witnessing the horrific scene, attempted to escape, but was trapped to the ground by a chair on which she sat.
The masked armed men, dressed in military camouflage over desert boots, rushed on her and seized the assault rifle she signed for at the armoury, to perform the Operation Calm Life duty.
The male in the team managed to scale a wall and took position, from where he fired a few shots to ward off the attackers.
Prior to that, on February 4, 2019 policemen on snap check point duty at Kakpayilli, a suburb of Tamale, were also attacked by a number of armed gangsters who pounced on them with guns and other offensive weapons, beat the policemen and succeeded in stealing two AK 47 Assault rifles. Then on July 20, 2020 ten days to a year, when Cpl Agatha Nabin was murdered in cold blood, another policeman was attacked at a check point at Nyankpala by hooded armed men.
He was severely assaulted and the loaded assault rifle taken away. He was rushed to the Tamale Teaching Hospital where he spent quite some time before recovering.
These bring to five, the assault rifles, which were stolen from police personnel on duties at the checkpoints and all happened in the night.
A highly placed source at the Police Headquarters in Accra, who confirmed the paper’s finding, intimated that the police is doing everything possible to retrieve the stolen weapons.
According to the source, police intelligence is on the heels of the criminals, so as to render them toothless as Christmas festivities near.
