A scheduled demonstration by a pro opposition group Collation of Concerned Youth of Tamale in the Northern regional capital against police was violently scuttled on Monday by armed rival group suspected to be members of a dreaded vigilante group – The Kandahar Boys.
The Collation was protesting police failure to arrest members of the Kandahar Boys who they accuse of launching several attacks on state agencies in the region, assaulting workers.
At least five state agencies including the Tamale Teaching Hospital are under security protection after the Kandahar Boys invaded it demanding workers to vacate for NPP members to takeover.
The group protest was to express displeasure at the police inability to arrest the Kandahar Boys and the growing incidents of lawlessness in the region after the NPP won power.
Demonstrators were gathering at the Jubilee Park with red shirts and banners when the Kandahar Boys invaded the venue with weapons and chased away leaders of the protest.
Leaders of the group fled with protesters leaving behind petition letters when the group besieged the premises after earlier warning to counter the protest.
The Kandahar Boys arrived at the venue immediately after the police who were to provide protection to the protesters retreated.
Secretary of the Kandahar Boys Abdulai Hack told Starr News they disrupted the protest because the rival group was hiding under a pressure group to make the government unpopular.
He said his group would not allow any protest against government or the security outfit in the region.
However, a concerned member of the pro opposition group Mahama Zakaria blamed the police for the incident.
Zakaria raging with anger after fleeing the attack launched a blistering attack on the regional police Commander ACP Patrick Adusei Sarpong saying, he has been brought to the region to “prosecute an agenda”.
“They have succeeded in stopping this one. Next time we will also prepare and anything that happens, the Northern regional and metro commanders should be blamed; they should be held responsible for any act of lawlessness in the region. If they are using this region to do politics, they should get out because elsewhere people when commit such crimes they face the law.
“We are telling the police Commander that we know him. He was here in 1999 before a change of government under President kufour so we know his history and records in this region. We are just law abiding and that should not be taken for granted”.
