Bawku: Police clash with Customs over cargo truck

There was heavy exchange of gunfire in a clash between personnel of the police and customs at the Missiga checkpoint in the Bawku municipality of the Upper East Region on Wednesday afternoon.

The clash followed a disagreement between the State security agencies over whose responsibility it was to inspect a cargo truck with registration number AS 5551-21 that was traveling to neigbouring Togo from Kumasi.

Further details of the cause of the incident are not readily available as an official statement has yet to be released.

However, reliable security sources said tempers flared up after some police officers chased down the truck at Pulmankom but refused to hand it to over to their counterparts from Customs.

The truck was said to be transporting bags of cocoa beans suspected to have been smuggled.

The resistance by the police resulted in an intense gunfire from both State security agencies. It took the intervention of soldiers who were called in to bring the situation under control.

The truck was later handed over to the Customs to continue with investigations.

No injuries have been reported.

Clashes

The latest incident brings to four the number of clashes between security agencies in the Upper East Region this year. The last incident was in July between personnel of the Immigration Service and Customs at the Kulungugu border. Before that, personnel of the Police and Military also clashed violently in Paga in June, leading to some officers sustaining injuries.

In April, there was a violent clash between soldiers and officers of the Bawku Central prison. Three prison officers sustained gunshot wounds in that incident. The incident was widely condemned and triggered a visit by the regional minister Dr Bin Salih Hafiz and an emergency meeting involving all the State security agencies in Bawku.

Source: Mike 105.3 FM/Missiga.