Agona Swedru, July 3, GNA - The Ministry of the Interior is making efforts to provide more vehicles and personnel to the Agona Swedru Divisional Police Command to combat criminal activities under its jurisdiction.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Felix Obeng-Forson, said this when he addressed some heads of department after a five-hour clean-up exercise at the Bungalow area.

Mr Obeng-Forson said the Municipal Assembly was currently providing about 50 gallons of petrol to the Police, every three days, for their night patrols to help curb the spate of armed robbery cases in the Municipality. He said the Assembly was worried about the increasing rate of armed robbery cases in the area and gave the assurance that it would do everything possible to ensure the safety of the people.

Earlier, the heads of Department of the Agona West Municipal Assembly appealed to the Swedru Divisional Police Command to give them adequate security at their residential area to protect them against armed robbery. Mr Samuel Asare Ankomah, Central Regional Cocoa Extension Officer at Agona Swedru, and spokesman of the group, said in the past five months, eight armed robbery attacks had been recorded with an unspecified amount of money and some personal belongings taken from them.

He said the bungalow residential area is without streetlights and had also become weedy, adding that, most private estate developers had also encroached on government lands in the area.

Mr Ankomah said the Police Patrol Team could not extend their night duties to the area and appealed to the Assembly to assist the Agona Swedru Divisional and District Police Command to offer them the needed police protection.

Mr Ankomah said the residents had, in the meantime, formed a watch dog committee to supplement the efforts of the police. They weeded overgrown areas, swept and desilted choked gutters.