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The Ashanti Regional Police Command has stressed its determination to deal with any senior officer whose station will record a cell break of suspects.

At an emergency meeting at the Regional Command at the weekend, the Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kofi Boakye, directed all divisional, district and unit commanders to take personal responsibilities at their various charge offices and cells and ensure that all suspects are well secured.

The emergency meeting followed the escape of six suspected hardened criminals from three police cells- Tepa, Nsuta and Asiwa in the Ashanti Region, within a month.

It was also aimed at finding the root causes of the recent cell breaks in the region.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Command after the meeting of all senior police officers in the region.

According to the statement, DCOP Kofi Boakye charged all the station officers to ensure that their cells and the inmates were well secured, and directed that suspects confined in cells whose structures are defective should be moved to more secure ones.

The Commander, the statement hinted, “will conduct surprise checks himself at the various cells in the region and ensure that all security features are intact and suspects’ securities are ensured” and reiterated that any officer who allows a suspect to escape from custody would be dealt with”.

DCOP Boakye, according to the statement, also directed that the officers conduct regular checks at the charge offices and cells in order to make them more difficult for suspects to escape from custody.

He urged the officers to report all structural defects at all the stations to the regional command for necessary action to be taken on them.

It is recalled that on March 4, this year, a suspected drug dealer described by the police as hardened, and a colleague escaped from the Nsuta Police cells.

Kojo Antwi, the suspect, was said to have been arrested with 12 bags of leaves suspected to be Indian hemp at Nsuta Atonsu in the Mampong District of the Ashanti Region.

Similarly on April 3 this year, Shadrack Nyame, 39, and Ernest Owusu Afram,26, escaped through a window of the police cells at Tepa in the Ahafo Ano South District of the Ashanti Region.

Barely a week ago, another two suspected robbers, Kwasi Yeboah and Kwadwo Opoku were said to have used a hacksaw blade to cut the iron bars of the windows to escape.