Abudus cry foul; accuse police of selective New Year arrest

The Abudu Royal family is accusing police in the Northern Region of selective arrest and prosecution. This follows the arrest of three persons by the police in a dawn swoop over skirmishes in Gushiegu in 2008 which culminated in needless deaths and destruction of property. Northern Region Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh confirmed the arrests to Joy News' Sammy Darko in an interview. The three, Haruna Abdul Rahman, Abdulai Sulemani and Abdulai Yakubu will be transferred to Accra and handed over to the Homicide unit of the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service, who Mr Tetteh said has begun investigations into the matter. But the spokesperson of the Abudu Royal Gate Dr. Zibrim Iddi said the arrested persons are only Abudus and members of the New Patriotic Party. He did not understand why only Abudus and members of the NPP were picked when the clashes clearly involved two gates and parties. “All four who were arrested this morning from Gushiegu are members of the NPP. One of them is my uncle and so I know he is both a member of the NPP and an Abudu.” He admits crime has no political colour and perpetrators must be brought to book irrespective of their political affiliations, but added fairness must prevail. “Yes crime has no political colour but when people go about arresting people, they know who they go to. They visited several houses and all houses belonged to the NPP,” he alleged. He said the arrests come at a time when the leaders of the NPP and the NDC in the constituency are trying to resolve amicably their political differences. “This arrest is very unfortunate especially when you listen to the President and his New Year message calling for unity, reconciliation and peace and now we are beginning the New year with indiscriminate arrests,” he protested.