A mob of angry youth at Larbanga have killed two elephants of the Mole Game Reserve in the West Gonja district of the Northern region Thursday evening as the animals were returning to the Park after straying to graze in the area.
The youth shot dead the animals and injured two others who managed to escape the fatal ambush after accusing them for straying into farmlands.
The youth also turned their weapons on a team of law enforcement officers deployed to herd the animals back to park and brutally assaulted them to injuries before seizing their AK47 rifle.
Manager of the Park, Umar Farouk confirmed the sad incident to Starr News and added that the entire community thronged to the scene and hacked the remains of the slain animals.
He explained that a team of officers were deployed to the area after farmers called the Park to inform them that the animals had strayed into farmlands.
According to him, the officers were trailing the animals to where the call came from and suddenly burst into a rowdy armed crowd which had already killed two animals and carting the meat away in large containers.
The youth pounced on the officers, according to the Park manager, and seized them for many hours after assaulting them until armed police officers arrived.
“My officers on the ground deployed four men on motorbikes to trace where the call came from. The men heard that the animals were returning to the park and when they got to the Larbanga vicinity, not the town, the animals won’t go through the town. They were just passing by and a group of young guys mobilized themselves, ambushed them and shot two of them,” he said.
“The information got to us and quickly we mobilized again then the entire Larbanga community came out and got loose. They came out with all kind of weapons and tools and started hacking the meat to the extent that they handled my staff, they even seized one of our rifles”, Farouk stated.
Farouk said the police who arrived at the scene rescued the security officers but could not retrieve the seized weapon. The police, however, could not stop the community members from chopping down the meat to their homes.
He said, with the present of the police, the Park security were able to only take custody some vital parts of the animals, including the tusks and skulls.
The Damongo police are already investigating a matter in the Park that happened about a month ago where an officer was found killed by suspected poachers.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
