Correspondence from Upper West
The sudden disappearance of yet another night private security guard locally known as watchman in Wa in the Upper West Region is shooting the fear and panic levels of residents to a boiling point.
60-year-old Mustapha Badigbee alias Kwame, was said to have failed to return home Monday morning after close of work at Wa Star Standard International School where he worked as a night security guard.
Although the relatives are yet to establish his whereabouts, some blood stains were discovered at the school premises fueling suspicions that he might have been murdered and dumbed some where as has been happening in the municipality since last year.
The development has left many sitting on tenterhooks and asking many questions as to when the Police would solve the circumstances surrounding the recent mysterious killings that have claimed the lives of six people in this year alone.
This unfortunate incident comes at a time another family is anxiously grieving over the missing of their loved one who also a night security guard, disappeared three weeks ago and is also no where to be found.
He was also reported to have gone to work at night and has not been found since then, fuelling speculations he might have also fallen into the web of the blood-thirsty assailants who are gradually making the lives of the people in the municipality unbearable.
Nuhu Abdul-Wahab, a relative of Mustapha Badigbee, who is also the Assembly member for the Zingu electoral area in an interview Tuesday, September 13, said: “He’s my brother. He left for work on Sunday (September 12) but we learnt he didn’t come on Monday. We went to the school to check but he wasn’t there so we reported the matter to the Police. When we went to the school again together with the Police, we were taken to an uncompleted building at the premises where he usually sits but we couldn’t find any of his items there. Then, one of us saw a reddish substance on the ground around the area and therefore decided to use a stick to check what it was. Lo and behold, the substance turned out to be blood stains. We also examined walls of the building and also spotted blood stains on a part of the wall as well.”
The Police have opened investigations into the case with promise to roll out stringent measures to ensure the safety of residents. The Upper West Regional Police Commander, DCOP/Mr. Peter Anombugri Ndekugri has issued a statement Tuesday, September 13, banning the use of tricycle beyond 10:pm in the municipality indicating the situation demanded “stringent measures to bridge the lapses.”
The Police are also set to engage business people in the municipality regarding the security of their wares and the sort of people they employ to guard their outfits for them.
Meanwhile, the school has since been closed down while some police officers have been stationed at the school premises after some relatives of the victim angrily stormed the school wielding machetes and clubs to demand the whereabouts of their kinsman.
The failure of the Police to unravel even a single case in the increasing murders has led to many question their ability in the fight against crime to protect the people. They are therefore calling on the IGP and Interior Minister to intervene to save the people.
But for the last two missing watch men who are yet to be found, the modus operandi of the murderers is to kill their victims, remove some of their organs and bury them in a shallow grave, leading to suspicions by many who describe them as ritual killings.
It is however intriguing to note that most of the victims often turn out to be night security guards who are mostly in their sixties and above.
Many residents who spoke to GhanaWeb’s Upper West Regional correspondent, Ilyaas Al-Hasan, called on business owners to take their businesses seriously by employing much younger and well-trained men to provide their outfits with security instead of seeking cheap labour in the older folks in the name of security.
On the heels of these developments, some youth organizations as well as a coalition of journos in the region have given a hint on hitting the street to register their displeasure over what they believe is the ineptitude of the authorities to their plight as no one knows who the next victim would be.
