The Saboba Police in the Saboba-Chireponi district, of the Northern Region, has arrested Mr. Henry Kolan, the Red Cross representative in the area, for allegedly selling 40 plastic buckets of relief items to a market woman from Yendi. Narrating his account to The Chronicle at Saboba, Pastor Manyan Jonah, of the Assemblies of God Church, said on February, 26, 2008, he spotted one Balm, a native of Yendi, at Saboba Technical Institute's (SABTECH) junction, with 40 plastic buckets concealed in two sacks. Pastor Manyan said he became suspicious, and quickly phoned Pastor Philip Akwesi Jido of Christian Church to come and witness what he had seen. When Pastor Jido arrived at the scene, the two men of God interrogated Bako thoroughly on how he came about the items. Mr. Bako then revealed that he had taken the items from Mr. Kolan, upon a directive from one Adijah, a market woman at Yendi, to bring them to her at Yendi. The matter was then reported to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). The BNI also reported it to the police, and subsequently Kolan was arrested that same day. When the accused led the police to his house, where a search was conducted, the police retrieved 14 buckets, six and half bags of rice and two blankets. Mr. Kolan was subsequently taken into police custody, and released on bail the following day. Our sources say names have started cropping up in connection with the mass diversion. One Mr. Yaw Mahama, the man Mr. Kolan named as his distribution team leader, was not left out as well as some of the volunteers. It would be recalled that on February, 19, 2008, The Chronicle carried a story on its centre page on how three volunteers of the Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) at Saboba, Mr. Andrews Namuel, Madam Patience Wumbei and Master Kanjo, had accused the officer in charge of the society at Saboba, Mr. Henry Kolan, of diverting a huge chunk of the relief items meant for flood victims in Saboba and its environs, and selling them to market women. Mr. Kolan vehemently refuted all the accusations levelled against him. "If you are suffering for people, working hard for them and they cannot even praise you and will rather turn to give rumour and talk about things they cannot even see and justify, it's not the best," he said during an interview with this reporter, prior to the publication of the first story. When this reporter sought confirmation of his latest arrest from the Saboba Police last Friday, the senior officers there referred him to Yendi, where their District Commander is stationed for comment. According to the officers, they had sent the docket to Yendi, while investigations were still going on. All efforts by this paper to contact the Yendi District Police Commander for comments on the docket were fruitless. Dressed in a multi-coloured short sleeves shirt, ash pair of trousers and a brown pair of shoes, Mr. Kolan told this reporter, at his residence, that he was not arrested but invited by the police for questioning. "They say I was arrested, but I say I was invited," he maintained. He said his attempt to embark on a distribution exercise last Friday, in some communities that his distribution team had registered, was aborted by the police because he was still being investigated. Meanwhile a source told this paper that he had been directed, by his regional office, to distribute all the items following his alleged refusal to distribute them at the given time, thus the diversion allegations. The National Secretary of the Konkomba Youth Association (KOYA), Mr. Gabriel Mabe, said the Saboba District Administration has urged KOYA, all groups and individuals in the district not to interfere nor do anything to impede the efforts of the police in carrying out their investigations. They must allow the law to take its full course. According to The Chronicle sources, Mr. Kolan is expected to make his first appearance in court at Yendi Monday March 3, 2008. Meanwhile, it is alleged that a truck loaded with tents, rice, soap and other relief items has since vanished with the items. Pastor Jido expressed grave concern about the refusal of the people in the district to volunteer information, whenever a suspect was named in line with a crime. He, therefore, appealed to them to appreciate the fact that it was for the good of the entire community to uncover suspected criminals. Source: The Chronicle