The Kumasi High Court has officially handed over a large quantity of weapons to the Ministry for the Interior for distribution among some of the state security agencies in crime combat.
This followed the finality to a trial of some persons including a 72-year old Burkinabe, Omar Sata, for unlawful possession of the weapons.
The trial, which began in 2016 lasted three years, after three accused persons were convicted and sentenced last June for the charges preferred against them.
The Court, Presided over by Justice Obiri Yeboah, as part of his ruling on the case, ordered that all the confiscated arms and ammunitions be handed over to the Interior Ministry.
The Police in Ashanti, in December 2015 acting upon a tip-off, arrested the Burkinabe and three others at Akwatialine in Kumasi where a large quantity of weapons said to be the largest in the history of the Police Service in the region were retrieved.
During investigations and prosecution, Omar Sata admitted to procuring the arms and ammunition from La Cote d’Ivoire and made a transit in Ghana with Niger as the destination. He was, however, unlucky and arrested by the Police.
Sata was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour, while Suleiman Alhassan was given four years for abatement of crime, with Frank Adu also sentenced to six months in prison.
The weapons include 11 AK 47 riffles, eight Mas MLE Weapon, AK 47 Magazines, six thousand, 898 seven-point-six two Millimeter AK 47 ammunition, six pieces of 12 point-seven Millimeter Anti-Aircraft ammunition, 50 Rounds of nine Millimeter Pistol ammunition among other deadly weapons.
At the official handing over of the arms and ammunitions at the Ashanti Regional Police headquarters in Kumasi, representatives from the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, Central Command of the Ghana Armed Forces, Bureau of National Investigations, BNI, and the Regional Police Command signed a document to acknowledge receipt of the items after which they inspected the weapons.
The Kumasi High Court Registrar, Ustarz Hamza, said the items were being handed over in compliance with the Court’s ruling for the Interior Ministry to supervise their onward distribution to state security agencies.
The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCoP Kwaku Mensah Duku, described the handing over of the weapons as a major boost for crime combat especially in the region.
He appealed to reidents in the region to support the security services especially in the provision of credible information.
