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The Northern Regional Police Command has picked up the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of Mr. Moses Alando Banaba, the People�s National Convention (PNC) parliamentary candidate in the Nalerigu Constituency in the 2008 elections. The main suspect, who has been identified as Salifu Tia aka Salifu Zongo Naaba, was arrested on Monday at his hideout at Gulugu in the outskirts of the Gushiegu district. He was arrested together with seven other persons in connection with the murder. The deceased, Mr. Moses Alando Banaba, who worked at the Nalerigu Baptist Medical Centre in the East Mamprusi District as a Pharmacist, was allegedly ambushed and shot in the thigh when he was on his way home after work on Thursday evening. The body of the deceased, who is a Kusasi, has been deposited at the morgue at the Nalerigu Baptist Medical Centre. The Northern Regional Police Commander, ACP Awuni Angwubutoge, disclosed this in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on PEACEFM�s �Kokrokoo� after a press conference held in the Regional capital, Tamale. According to him, �when news got round that the suspect was wanted in connection with the murder, he escaped and attempted to flee the town, but luckily was arrested in a village in the Gushiegu district.� Mr Awuni said a locally manufactured pistol and a military belt were found on him. Touching on the hurriedly arranged press conference, which was organized a few hours after the police affected the arrest, ACP Awuni said the police �took into consideration the major role played by the media in the suspects� arrest, so it�s fair and proper to let the media know appreciative the police are for their services,� he stated. It would be recalled that the PNC over the weekend sharply criticized the police commander for imputing ethnicity in the murder. Bernard Mornah, the National Youth Organiser of the party, contended that it is wrong for a highly placed security officer as the regional commander to soon after the shooting incident insinuate that the murder was an overflow of the raging Bawku Kusasis-Mamprusi ethnic conflict.