The Upper West Regional Police Command has strengthened its two weeks keep-fit exercise for officers in the latest move adopted to improve their physical fitness in readiness towards fighting growing crime rate.

The police officers, led by Deputy Upper West Regional Commander, ACP Peter Ndekugri, converged in their numbers at the regional police headquarters, dressed in uniformed Lacoste that bore inscriptions like CTU, SWAT and MTTD.

The officers made few loud noises, signaling obedience to command and began moving as they jogged along the Wa township streets amidst singing and clapping for about an hour.

They later, returned to their base at the regional office premises for additional physical activities after moving through major streets of the town.

At the station, they displayed varied gymnastics including lifting of heavy iron bars, doing press-up and dancing, all in a bid to improve body fitness for the task ahead.

Addressing the officers at the end of the training, ACP Peter Ndekugri, entreated the men and women in uniform to be undertaking the exercise as their “daily meals” for body fitness since it was essential in fighting crime.

“Exercise is a fruit to your body and let me tell you, apart from this two-week activity, I do a lot of training and that keeps me fit,” he said. He said the exercise was critical in enabling their fitness deal effectively with crime and bring it under control, especially when confronted with criminals who resisted lawful police.

He added that the exercise would send a psychological signal to the public and criminals that the police were ever prepared and combat ready to crush any criminal.

ACP Ndekugri said the region deployed 25 Officers to Chereponi in the North East Region for a peace keeping mission in the renewed conflict between Chokosis and Konkombas while others have been deployed to Tumu, Hamile and Lambusie for similar missions.

Due to their limited numbers, the police in the region have been facing herculean task dealing with multiple persistent crimes such as stealing, armed robbery, assassination attacks as well as chieftaincy, religious and land conflicts.

Upper West has 1,067 police personnel for the population of close to one million, which is woefully inadequate, raising concerns about security of residents.