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The Somanya District Police Command has arrested 14 persons including children for flouting the ban on social gatherings.

The 14 are said to have gathered in a house to perform puberty rites, locally known as Dipo. 

DSP Ebenezer Tetteh said in an interview on Kokrokoo programme on Peace FM that for now, the police "are dealing with the parents and elders because they should have known better".

"What they did was not permissible under the law," the Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer added.

Akropong scenario

If you may recall, four key persons in the Akuapem traditional area were also nabbed for flouting the ban on social gatherings.

The Akropong district police command apprehended four chiefs for their roles in the installation of the new Akuapemhene. Videos and pictures that flooded social media showed hundreds of people openly flouting the social distancing rule 'under police protection'

Speaking to this on the same platform, DSP Ebenezer Tetteh denied claims that the police were giving indigenes protection.

According to him, the police officers who were seen among the people outdooring the new chief were on 'mobile patrol'.

"The police did not provide protection what you saw were policemen who were on their mobile patrol; they were not providing protection," he rebuffed.

More questions

DSP Tetteh was asked why only four persons were arrested in the Akuapem traditional area when hundreds of residents were involved, and why unlike the Akropong case, the persons arrested in Somanya have already been taken to court.

Listen to his explanation in the video below



Meanwhile, host of the show, Kwami Sefa Kayi says if he was President Akufo-Addo, he would have locked down Akropong for disregarding measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19