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Salifu Tia aka Salifu Zongo Naaba, the suspected killer of Moses Alando Banaba, the 2008 parliamentary candidate of the People�s National Convention (PNC) in the Nalerigu Gambaga constituency, was in the early hours of last Friday arrested and handed over to the Northern Regional Police Command, 72-hours after the heinous crime. Six other accomplices in relation to the murder have also been arrested at Nasia and are in police custody awaiting further investigations. The 31-year-old Salifu, a farmer, after committing the offence, enjoyed the support of residents who prevented his arrest by the police and aided him to abscond. Police in the East Mamprusi District, with support from a detachment from the Regional Police Command in collaboration with some civilians, mounted a search for him till he was arrested at Gologu near Gushiegu in the Gushiegu District of the Northern region. Salifu Tia, reports indicated, after fleeing from Nalerigu, was hopping from one community to the other in an attempt to completely escape from the law until his cover was blown by some patriots in the Gologu community. He was immediately arrested and handed over to the police at Gushiegu, who in turn transferred him to Tamale where charges of murder would be preferred against him. Briefing the media on the arrest, the Northern Regional Police Commander, ACP Awuni Angwubutoge, disclosed that the group was alleged to be planning to raise an army to support their compatriots in Bawku. He added that it was in pursuance of their ill-conceived agenda that Mr. Alando was murdered in cold-blood, hinting that the miscreants might have operated in a network. The Police Chief told journalists that upon their arrest, one locally manufactured pistol and a military belt used in carrying ammunitions were retrieved from them. ACP Awuni warned against the spread of the Bawku conflict into the Northern region, saying he was not ready to accommodate such retrogression within his domain. It would be recalled that the 2008 parliamentary candidate of the People�s National Convention in Nalerigu-Gambaga, Moses Alando Banaba, was in the early hours of Friday shot and killed by Salifu Tia. Eye-witness accounts said the victim was on his way to work when he was slain by his assailant. The shooting incident, according to security sources, was believed to be a spillover of the Bawku crisis following a long standing tribal conflict between the Mamprusis and Kusasis over chieftaincy succession. The suspect, a Mamprusi, according to DAILY GUIDE sources, was believed to be a brother to a man who was allegedly shot and killed by the military in Bawku last month in a heated gun battle. Mr. Alando, a Kusasi pharmacist with the Baptist Medical Centre (BMC) in Nalerigu, it was gathered, became a target in view of the fact that he belonged to the opposing divide. Attempts by police personnel in Nalerigu to arrest the suspect proved futile as residents at the scene of the crime shielded him. A reinforcement team was dispatched from the Regional Police headquarters to Nalerigu and with the collaboration of the civil populace, the suspect was finally apprehended. The Regional Commander has since commended the people of Gologo for their courageous efforts but expressed worry that the prolonged ethnic conflict in Bawku was beginning to have a rippling effect in the Northern region, warning that he was going to nip such aberration in the bud. Earlier reports had said tension was mounting in the town as some relations of the suspect were alleged to be pointing fingers at certain personalities for their involvement in the death of the deceased.