Four persons are in the grips of the police in the Sissala East Municipality for allegedly killing an elephant.

Municipal Police Commander, DSP Gbelle Kumpen told GNA that the four would be arraigned before court for allegedly killing the elephant at the Gbele Game Reserve.

“There was a report from the Forestry Commission that an elephant was killed and on the 20th of May 2020, after an investigation, we carried out a raid and 12 persons were arrested and a search conducted revealed the tail of the elephant and other body parts as well as the retrieval of three guns from them.

He said the four were alleged to have participated in the killing of the elephant and that the tusk of the elephant was later dumped behind the Bugubelle Police Station.

DSP Kumpe said the four who were currently on police enquiry bail would be sent to Wa for prosecution if their dockets were ready.

"There is an attack on the forest and its resources and my advice for all, is to stop depleting the forest or else if you get caught you would not be spared," he said.

DSP Kumpe said the lack of cooperation from the public was disturbing saying, “There is low cooperation from the public and that is the lifestyle of some of the people here, they have the habit of harbouring criminals and urged all to support the Police.

“There was no arrest of any child or any member of the family except hunters who killed the elephant.

The Park Manager of the Gbele Reserve, Dr Owusu Ansah in an interview said, “It was in connection with the killing of a ten-year-old elephant whose ivory market value could cost $10,000.00, which motivated the poachers to kill the young elephant.

He said a kilo of the ivory is about 2,000 dollars and the ivory recovered is about 20 kilos and that the elephant was about ten years old.

“For anybody to kill an elephant the motivation will be to get the ivory sold, which is very valuable,” he added.

Dr. Owusu also revealed that “Elephant hunting had been banned since 1989 and in the past, Ghana had more elephants than Burkina Faso according to the literature, but we have made the place inhabitable for them due to attacks and we have chased them all away”.

Sissala area still remains their route into the Nazinga Forest Reserve in Burkina Faso and every year they come around for visit, which hunters take advantage of to kill them.