Chaos in Oguaa - Rowdy youth disrupt Fetu Afahye launch

Confusion nearly marred the launch of this year’s Fetu Afahye when angry youth besieged the Ato Austin Gardens and disrupted proceedings for about an hour.

The group from the Ntsin community, numbering about 200, wearing red head and armbands, accused the Omanhen, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, and the Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, of turning their backs at the youth.

It took the intervention of armed policemen, deployed from the regional headquarters, to bring the situation under control.

The police, however, remained on guard until the end of the programme.

Anarfo Market

A source told the Daily Graphic that last Tuesday morning, the community members spotted a stranger, believed to be in an unstable condition, under a shed at the Anarfo Market.

It said the market women and some young men confronted the said stranger, who was also carrying a travelling bag, and seized his cell phone.

The residents then placed a call to a number on the phone to which a man, who identified himself as a brother of the stranger, answered.

They then asked him to come over and take the stranger, who he claimed was his brother.

According to the source, the brother was advised by the driver of a taxi he chartered that he should seek police protection, since the residents could be rowdy.

On the basis of the advice, the man went to report to the police who accompanied him to the Anarfo Market.

Kidnapping

Immediately the police arrived, they launched a swoop and arrested four of the youth, because they thought it was a case of kidnapping.

They were put before a Cape Coast Circuit Court, which remanded the four in police custody yesterday to appear on May 3.

The arrest and the remand of the four persons infuriated the residents who moved from the court to the durbar grounds and tried to stop proceedings.

An armed police reinforcement was then called in to restore calm and order and allow the programme to continue.