Thirty-two suspected criminals have been arrested within the Kasoa enclave in the last few days as the police move to rid the area and its surroundings of criminals who are turning the area into their safe haven.
Yesterday, 30 people were arrested at Ofaakor, near Kasoa in the Central Region, while two people allegedly linked to previous crimes were also picked up at Buduburam and Kasoa Estates last Tuesday.
While a police operation in the wee hours of yesterday led to the arrest of the 30 suspects, police intelligence also resulted in the arrest of Eric Asare, alias Fanta Mogya, who is alleged to have been involved in the robbing and brutal killing of a 45-year-old businessman at the Opeikuma Junction traffic light on March 31, 2020.
Another suspect, Kofi Appiah, alias Aboagye Dacosta or Nana, was picked up from his hideout at the Kasoa Estates Junction for possessing 10 bundles of GH¢50 notes suspected to be fake.
He has been detained for further investigations.
The 30 suspects include six women, who were picked up at various hideouts in the Ofaakor area.
During the operation, the police found and confiscated slaps of a substance suspected to be Indian hemp, six motorbikes, two of which were unregistered, and offensive weapons.
The Ofaakor District Police Commander, DSP Samuel Amfo, told the Daily Graphic that the suspects were arrested in both completed and uncompleted buildings.
“For now, we are screening them, after which those who will be found culpable of criminal offences will be put before court,” he said.
The police also found four slabs of Indian hemp in the room of one of the females arrested.
DSP Amfo said the police would continue their operation, since Kasoa and its surroundings had been “infected with criminals from other regions and areas and have relocated here”.
“We will make their hideouts uncomfortable for them,” he said.
Ofaakor being a newly developing area, he said, had become a safe haven for the criminals who were occupying all kinds of structures in the area, saying it was from those structures they attacked people, especially at night.
“Most of the houses are uncompleted and so criminals find safety in those places which were not even given to them by the owners. They enter the structures and occupy them by force,” he said.
DSP Amfo gave an assurance that the swoops would be carried out twice or three times a week.