Aflao, Aug. 11, GNA - Five suspected stolen motorbikes have been retrieved from an abandoned building at Denu as the Aflao police launch an operation to stem crimes and fatal accidents involving motorbikes begin.

Dozens of bikes, made up of foreign registered bikes, mainly Togolese ones not covered with temporal entry permits to operate in Ghana, those being ridden without helmets and unregistered bikes have been impounded at Aflao and Denu since Monday.

Mr Daniel Dzansi, the Aflao District Police Crime Officer, told the GNA in an interview that recent stealing and bag snatching cases by criminals using mainly Togolese and unregistered bikes, motorbike stealing and fatal accidents in which people including the riders and pylon riders lost their lives, had prompted the operation.

Police reports, he said, blamed the fatality of those accidents on the non-use of helmets.

Mr Dzansi said his outfit was often faced with the dilemma of not being able to trace Togolese registered and the unregistered bikes used in crimes.

He said some of the bikes, suspected to have been stolen from Togo, had their numbers replaced with forged plates and could not be traced in both Ghana and Togo.

Mr Dzansi said none of the five motorbikes retrieved from the abandoned house at Denu, three of which were unregistered and the other two with Togolese numbers, had been claimed despite radio announcements.

He said the operation was not against commercial motor operations known as "Zemidza" but purely against non-use of helmets.

Mr. Dzansi condemned the practice in which some Togolese "Zemidza" operators entered Aflao and parts of the district with bikes registered in their country to operate as unacceptable.