The Northern Regional Police Command intercepted three serviceable AK 47 assault rifles with three magazines and 160 live rounds of ammunition on Wednesday at about 4:30pm.
The weapons which were concealed in a sack containing local rice, waiting to be transported to some trouble-prone communities in the Brong Ahafo Region, where chieftaincy clashes have been waging for some time now.
The Northern Regional Police Command has been monitoring the chieftaincy clashes between the Bawa agate and the Chawachawa gate at Portor on the Kintampo road in the Brong Ahafo region.
The weapons, according to the police, were to be transported to the area by Dapaa Jabuni belonging to the Bawa gate.
The police intelligence, with support from informants, trailed the suspect at the Sankpala lorry station, where he wanted to transport the dangerous weapons but to no avail.
The Northern Regional Criminal Investigations Department (CID), with effective collaboration with an informant, culminated in the weapons’ seizure.
Briefing the media in Tamale, the Deputy Regional Police Commander Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Akrofi Oyirifi Edward said the police have every reason to believe that the suspect was sending the weapons to fuel the chieftaincy clashes in the Portor community.
He explained that the Northern Regional Police Command’s interest in the chieftaincy dispute is largely due to the proximity of Kintampo to their jurisdiction.
Portor is a town along the Kintampo-Tamale road with a population of 3,000 people. The road divides the town into two communities.
Those on the left side belong to the Chawachawa Family while those on the right side of the road are members of the Bawa family.
ACP Akrofi Oyirifi said the suspect has been trading in the weapons from Chereponi in the northern region and Bawku in the Upper East region.
The suspect, ACP Akrofi Oyirifi said, is currently at large and that the police are on a manhunt for Dapaa Jabuni. ACP Akrofi Oyirifi appealed to factions in the chieftaincy dispute to resort to dialogue at the regional house of chiefs, instead of engaging in violence.
