AT least three people have been reported dead and others critically injured following a suspected dynamite explosion in the Ghana-Burkina Faso border town of Hamile in the Upper West Region.
The dead are an immigration officer and two private civilian citizens.
According to a Nandom-Hamile-based journalist, Mohammed Abdulai, who narrated the incident to The Ghanaian Times, the incident has agitated the youth of the border town, who attempted to raze down the immigration office, prompting the intervention of the military.
Four people, he said, were shot in the process by the soldiers and are receiving treatment at the St. Theresa’s Hospital in Nandom.
Mohammed narrated that two immigration officers were on patrol when they encountered two civilians on a tricycle with suspected items of dynamite, but attempts to stop them were futile.
“So I called the Assembly Member for Hamile, who explained that he suspects that in the attempt to escape from the officers (on a bad road), there was some collision of the item they were carting, resulting in the blast. He told me that one of the immigration officers died instantly and the two civilians carting the items were blown to pieces,” Mohammed Abdulai said.
“The fourth person at the scene, an immigration officer, survived with injuries and has since been rushed to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” he added.
Information, however, he said, got to the youth of the area that it was the immigration officers who shot into the tricycle, causing the explosion.
“So the youth mobilised and marched to the border where the immigration office is to burn down the place. But the police and military were there to stop them. The information I have is that in an attempt to disperse them, four of them have been shot and are receiving treatment at the hospital,” he added.
Mohammed said carting such items and smuggling them across the border to Burkina Faso overnight was a daily activity by the youth in the area for survival.
“That is what they do. They cart those things almost every day,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has confirmed the death of one of its officers following an explosion during a border patrol operation in the Hamile Sector of the Upper West Region.
In a press release issued by its Public Affairs Department, the Service said a team of four officers on border patrol duties responded to an unusual sound in the area and intercepted a man transporting a load on a tricycle.
The rider allegedly attempted to escape when the officers approached to inspect the contents of the load. In the process of trying to stop him, the load exploded, killing the rider and injuring two officers.
One of the injured officers later succumbed to his injuries, while the other is receiving emergency medical care at the Nandom Hospital and is reported to be in stable condition.
The GIS said the Sector Commander and a team had visited the scene, which had since been secured, while investigations had commenced to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident. Read More.
BY GORDON WELLU & JULIUS YAO PETETSI
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