A former student of the Tuna Senior High Technical School in the Sawla-Tuna- Kalba District in the Savannah Region has gone missing at the Mole National Park.
Yakubu Nashiru, who has not been seen for a week now, was with a group of friends who went on a hunting expedition in the wildlife and game reserve in Damongo.
It is believed that Nashiru may have had an encounter with a wild animal in the park after his colleagues, who are also SHS leavers, returned safely to Murugu, a community near the park without Nashiru.
Incident
A cousin of Nashiru, who only gave his name as Osman, told the Daily Graphic that his cousin and his colleagues who recently completed SHS went on a hunting expedition in the forest on June 18, 2019.
Each of them returned with a catch to a temporary camp they had set up except Nashiru.
He said for fear of being arrested, the boys refused to formally report the incident to the management of the park since their action was illegal.
However, when the community was informed about the missing boy, the management of the park was subsequently told about the incident.
According to Osman, a search party, consisting some community members and game wardens yesterday embarked on a search for Nashiru, but were not successful in their mission.
He said a further search would be conducted to locate the whereabout of his cousin who was waiting for his West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
Report
When officials of the park and the police in Damongo were contacted, they said their attention was drawn to the issue only yesterday.
According to them, such matters were often not reported by the people for fear of being arrested and prosecuted.
Even though the park is a restricted area, people sometimes hide in it to poach game.
A recent incident of poaching happened about a week ago when an alleged notorious poacher, Seidu Yakubu, in the company of two others, went poaching in the park.
Yakubu was subsequently attacked by an elephant he was alleged to have shot and suffered a waist dislocation.
He is currently in the grip of the Damongo Police assisting in further investigations.
Mole Park
The Mole National Park is located in Damongo in the newly created Savannah Region.
The traditional hunting ground was turned to a game reserve in 1958 and gazetted as a national park in 1971.
The park, which covers 457,700 hectares of land, has since been developed into a major tourist destination and ecological research area and attracts more than 17,000 visitors and research scientists from all over the world annually.
The park hosts about 90 different species of mammals and is regarded the only place where large numbers of various species of wildlife can be viewed in large numbers in Ghana.
Plans are underway to make the park, a World Heritage Site.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
