Mr Victor Smith, the Eastern Regional Minister, has said the government would strive to tackle the accommodation problems facing the security agencies.

He said accommodation had been the major issue of all the security agencies and the government would redeem its promise of ensuring that, members of the security agencies had decent accommodation.

Mr Smith, said this when he visited the regional commands of all the security agencies in Koforidua to interact with them.

The Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kwabena Gyamera Yeboah, told the Regional Minister that armed robbery, road accidents, rape and defilement, chieftaincy disputes, illegal mining and lumbering and activities of Fulani herdsmen had been the major reported cases.

He said the police had intensified its patrol and operations to reduce incidences of such crimes; as a result, the police command was able to reduce crime rate by 14 percent last year.

The Regional Commander said, the regional command was faced with a number of challenges such as accommodation and vehicular constraint, but was doing its best to protect the citizens and expressed the hope that the challenges would be addressed in due course.

The Regional Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Abeiku Ashong, said since January, 126 fire cases had been recorded resulting in 56 injuries and four deaths.

He said the region had fire stations at all the districts except the new districts of Birim North, Akyemmansa and Kwahu West.

He disclosed that, plans were advanced to open a station at Birim North with the provision of new fire tenders and other equipment.

The Commander of the Koforidua Prison, Deputy Director of Prison (DDP), K. Kuma Kpeli, said only one tailoring shop catered for the reformation and rehabilitation aspect of the inmates, which was woefully inadequate to train over 600 inmates.

He said a cloth, doormat weaving programme introduced recently on trial basis to support reformation had been faced out due to security concerns.**