There is uneasy calm at Nakpanduri in the Bunkpurugu Yonyoo district of the Northern Region following yesterday’s police raid in the town. Residents say over a dozen houses were torched in what police describe as an exercise to smoke out a wanted criminal who has killed two police officers. Some residents who fled their homes are yet to return. The Paramount Chief of Nakpanduri, Mr David Kansuk reported seeing grains of maize, groundnuts, beans and other food items on fire. He said when the police invaded the town, there was general pandemonium. Chief Kansuk said he was meeting with his elders to determine the next line of action. The Upper East Regional Police Commander, ACP Bright Oduro told Joy News, Wednesday’s action was precipitated by intelligence reports that the hardened criminal, Johnson Kombian was in the town. He said although they were particularly searching for Kombian, the police were also seeking to arrest his accomplices and “people who are providing information that had made it possible for him to always escape justice.” “We didn’t go there to visit mayhem on anybody, we went there to get Kombian, we went there to cut his links with people who were providing him with information,” he stated. ACP Oduro was not happy with complaints that the police was highhanded in their handling of the situation. He said even though Kombian is a hardened criminal who was unleashing terror on the people of Nakpanduri, the people had refused to provide the police with information that will lead to his arrest, “now that we have gone in there, people are expressing concern.” He said the scale of the operation lent to excesses and maintained it was not the desire of the police to hurt the people. Source: Fiifi Koomson and Malik Abass Daabu/Joy News/Ghana