Security expert, Dr. Kwesi Aning, has accused the Police of not exhibiting enough seriousness in clamping down on the activities of land guards in the country.
According to him, the Police do not need any instructions from the President or the Ministry of Interior to tackle such issues head-on.
The phenomenon of land guards terrorizing residents has worsened in recent times in various areas on the outskirts of Accra, with Kasoa in the Central Region recording more cases.
Police must sit up
Dr. Aning, while speaking at the third event in the Accra Dialogue series on “The Scars of Vigilantism: a legal or political question?” at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration Law Faculty on Wednesday, said Ghana’s ballooning population and unplanned urban growth are a recipe for disaster in the area of security, hence the police must sit up.
[contextly_sidebar id=”9sAwzVtfaJVMDCHwa4F7A3x5EYbCxn81″]“You really don’t need the president to give instructions to the police to crack the whip when people are breaking the laws of the land. You don’t even need the Minister of Interior to charge the police to act this way because that’s what they are there for. So I’m raising the question – what is holding them back? I don’t have the answer, the police must tell us,” he said.
Ringleader Red Moro
With regards to activities of land guards in Kasoa, Dr. Aning said he had information on the ringleader and has given the police the information but no action has yet been taken.
“…I’ve also challenged the police that in Kasoa, the main land guard boss is a man called Red Moro. Three weeks ago I challenged the IGP to send his men to Kasoa to come to my office so that Red Moro could be arrested. No one has contacted me,” he bemoaned.
Kasoa, 50 other crime hotspots to emerge by 2021 – Aning
“In 4 years’ time, there will be 50 Kasoas in this country. We don’t want to think about the demographics. In 2063, we will be 70 million in this country. It will lead to massive urbanization, unplanned urban spaces, and it will have an impact on law enforcement. We ought to have at least 60,000 police officers now, but we now have 33,000. We don’t have enough. Kasoa is representative of the demographic plus the urban challenge that this country is going to face. It is a transient town, nobody knows anyone, nobody owes anybody allegiance and therefore the murders that we are seeing will escalate by 31st December this year,” Dr. Aning added.
Nine land guards grabbed at Gomoa Fetteh
Nine persons suspected to be gun-wielding land guards were arrested last week at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region by the Anti-Land Guards squad from the Police National Headquarters who were deployed to the Kasoa area.
The team, led by Chief Inspector John Danso of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) of the Ghana Police, arrested the suspects at the palace of the Chief of Gomoa Fetteh.
Already, the Greater Accra Regional Police Command has arrested some 50 land guards, some of whom have been processed for court.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin