Reign of terror descends on Tamale

Negative Change Chapter 2 Outdoored

Lens -- NDC supporters in Tamale and surrounding villages are having to run from their homes to escape from the wrath of armed security operatives of the NPP who are bent on visiting mayhem on them for rejecting the NPP at the polls.

Reports from Tamale indicate that at least six persons, all of them staunch NDC supporters have lost their lives since the reign of terror began.

Confirmed to be among the dead is the Northern Regional Chairman of the GPRTU, Alhaji Issah Mobilla. Reports that the NDC MPs for Tolon and Nanton may be among the dead have not been confirmed as at the time of going to press.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Alhaji Issah Mobilla is as curious as it is worrisome. According to reports, Alhaji Mobilla returned home to find that his house had been ransacked by persons supposed to be security officials, apart from the fact that his dwelling was virtually turned upside down, his vehicle was also vandalised, all in the name of search for arms.

Alhaji Mobilla then reported himself to the Police, whereupon he was detained in Police custody. However, as it is becoming increasingly clear, he was transferred from the custody of the Police to the custody of some Military personnel who had been brought from Kunasi, on the orders of some political bigwigs in the area. These soldiers then tortured the poor man to death.

The soldiers into whose custody Alhaji Mobilla had been transferred were not regular soldiers at the Kamina Barracks in Tamale, they therefore do not ordinarily fall under the command of official security agencies there.

Meanwhile efforts are already afoot to cover-up this crime, just as officialdom has succeeded in covering up for the killers of the Ya-Na and over forty of his kinsmen. The official statement concerning the death of the Alhaji says that the Alhaji suddenly collapsed and died while being conveyed to the Police station.

Reports from Tamale say most activists of the NDC and a few activists of the other opposition parties have been rounded up and placed in custody. The worrisome aspect of this latest development in Tamale is that known NPP activists were leading the arresting officers, and are the ones pointing out the homes of NDC supporters.

Worse still, some of the persons effecting the arrests of these individuals are not employees of the security agencies, but known NPP activists. One such activist, Karim Soldier, an ex-serviceman, was very instrumental in the arrests and brutality being meted out to NDC supporters in Tamale.

Meanwhile NDC supporters in other parts of Dagbon are fearful that these attacks may be extended to their localities, they have therefore called on the party leadership to act to protect them before they are annihilated.