Unity is the cornerstone to Ghana’s development … says Lieutenant General Peter Augustine Blay; as Ghana Armed Forces embark upon another mock exercise

 

 

BY MOSES KWESI DAUTEY
Unity is the cornerstone to every nation's development and for that matter; efforts must be made towards actualizing that goal.

Ghana's Ambassador to th

e Ivory Coast, His Excellency Lieutenant General Peter Augustine Blay (RTD), said this during this year's EX RESCUE MISSION held at the Krobo Mountain, in the Eastern Region on Republic Day.

According to him, without unity any effort by a country to develop would be likened to putting up a mansion in the sand with no foundation.

Full of praise for the organizers of the event, which was conceived during his tenure of office as the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), H.E. Lt-Gen Blay did not hide his feelings as he watched ci

vilians team up with m

embers of the security services to go through strenuous effort, ascending and descending the 90-meter high Krobo Mountain with the view to smashing an imaginary gang.

In the morning of July 1, 2016, a contingent made up of personnel drawn from 1BN – Michel Camp, Fifth Battalion of Infantry – 5BN (Arakan Barracks), 64 Infantry Regiment – Gondar Barracks, Eastern Naval Command  – ENC (Naval Base), Tema, Ghana Police Service – Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT), Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) and Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU).

Others include Ghana Prisons Service – Headquarters and Akuse, Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Korean Residents Association in Ghana, Geodan Club Ltd, Afriyie Fitness Club, Tema Technical Institute (Naval Cadet), assembled at the Tema Motorway Roundabout to receive briefing from Ex-Warrant Officer (SWO) Razak Yambe, Operations Director of Exercise Rescue Mission.

According to him, the second-in-command of the group, Komfo Larbia, who escaped arrest in 2014 and 2015 after the Krobo Mountain and Accra Plains had been raided, had gone to regroup remnants of that criminal establishment.

During the two previous consecutive assaults, his boss, in the person of Bishop John Brown, was overpowered, managed to break jail later, but was finally nabbed in 2015 and is presently remanded in custody, awaiting advice from state lawyers.

Komfo Larbia is said to have set up farms and engaged a number of persons with information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Agricultural backgrounds, whose education at the tertiary levels, he secretly sponsored to facilitate a diabolic agenda.

Reports also had it that Komfo Larbia had recruited land guards in the name of farm labourers, who were being taken through drills to destabilize the coming elections.

Lieutenant Commander (Lt-Cdr) Benjamin Agoh Laryea of the General Headquarters, Training, Burma Camp, took over and declared MISSION 2016 to search, locate, arrest Komfo Larbia and disband his Sankofa group.

Two routes, Tema-Aflao and Tema-Akosombo highways were navigated by a Mechanized Brigade and Mountain Climbers, respectively.

The Mechanized Brigade entered the Accra Plains at Nyigbenya and chartered a course towards North, where the farms were situated, but the group got wind of MISSION 2016 and fled.

Led by the Counter Terrorism Unit of the Ghana Police Service, the Mechanized Brigade had information of a possible onslaught at Osuwem and truly, in the bushes near a Pentecostal church, during a search led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Bismarck Boakye-Ansah, following a tip-off from civilians, three boxes of what looked like ordnance were retrieved. Reason for that deposit is yet to be ascertained.

At about 1000HRS GMT, the Mechanized Brigade arrived at the Meriga canal crossing, off Akuse Township and met a herculean task.

Intelligence had it that the 50 meter long bridge at the canal crossing was booby-trapped and so men from the ordnance and warfare institute were deployed to clear the mined soggy area to allow safe passage.

The former CDS, himself a jungler, was present at that critical crossing to offer moral support to the rescuers who crossed by foot and vehicles with water rising above knee level.

Komfo Larbia and his elite squad were chased back to the summit of the 90-meter high Mountain, where after a battle in the forest and caves, they succumbed to MISSION 2016.

The 2-I-C, now leading the re-grouped, known for its fortification, at a stage attempted to escape again and was believed to be in the process of turning into a baobab tree and this was where the Counter Terrorism Unit of the Ghana Police Service excelled by beating all in rope climbing to capture Komfo Larbia, at the forested base of KLOWEM – ancestral home of the Krobos.

Few minutes later, 64 Infantry Regiment, with the motto 'Dare Not', engaged the last remnants of the Sankofa Group in wrestling, which was won by the Gondar Barracks guys.

Dignitaries present at the foot of the historic mountain to witness EX RESCUE MISSION 2016 included, Major General Sampson Kwame Adeti, Chief of Staff, General Headquarters, Burma Camp, Colonel Amenyor (rtd), Mr. Na Hwa Ryun, President of Korean Residents Association in Ghana, Mr. Robert Walker of Grace Company Limited.

Lt-Gen Peter Blay, Maj-General Sampson Adeti, Brigadier-General Francis Vib-Sanziri, National Coordinator of NADMO, Rear Admiral Geoffrey Mawuli Biekro (rtd), Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, Commissioner General of Ghana Revenue Authority, George Blankson, Mr Richard A. Y. Anamoo, Director-General, GPHA, Jacob Adorkor, Director of Port, GPHA, Tema, Kingsley Patrick Kwame Awuah-Darko, Managing Director of BOST and TOR were among persons honoured and acknowledged.

GPHA, Korean Residents Association, Ghana Revenue Authority, Grace Co. Ltd, Everpure Ltd, Galaxy Oil Ltd, City Escape Hotels Ltd, sponsored the exercise.