Five suspects have been arrested in con­nection with the recent shooting incident at Bawku in the Upper East Region.

The suspects are being screened by the police to ascertain their involvement or otherwise in the shooting, which resulted in the injury of a 24-year-old student of the Bawku Senior High school, Abdulai Aziz.

Bawku Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Kaletsi Tefutor, said that the municipality was still calm, while his officers continued to hunt for a leading member of a gang of hoodlums who fired gunshots Wednesday night in the Zongo area of the municipality.

The victim, Abdulai Aziz, is still on admis­sion and had not been able to talk to the police.

According to the com­mander, the suspect who is at large, is very much needed to assist in investiga­tions into the shooting inci­dent; and that the police will do all that they could to get him arrested.

The police found 32 rounds of used AK 47 bul­lets and 40 rounds of unused AK 47 bullets as well as a locally manufac­ture pistol, at the scene of the shooting.

Since December 31, 2007 when the first gun­shots were recorded at Bawku, the hitherto peace­ful business centre in the Upper East Region, the area has never known peace as gunshots are reportedly heard often.

It is quite clear that people who perpetrate this act live in the various com­munities of the Bawku Municipality, and yet peo­ple do not volunteer infor­mation to the police for them to be arrested or their guns confiscated, lamented the police officer.

Daily Guide checks also revealed that a recent oper­ation meant to seize guns from civilians in Bawku did not yield the expected result.

Under the operation, civilians were advised to surrender their guns and be paid GHȻ3,000.

Also anyone with information about someone with a gun could report for the same amount and yet, very little coopera­tion had been recorded.