With the recent reports of kidnappings and killings in the country, Security Analyst, Emmanuel Sowatey, has called for a conscious effort in building the capacity of the country’s security agencies in order to fight such crimes.
The case of three young girls who were kidnapped last year between August and December, is yet to be resolved with the Ghana Police Service seeking assistance from the US and UK to help with investigations.
The only suspect arrested, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, a Nigerian, broke jail and escaped, and was later rearrested at Nkroful near Takoradi.
He is currently facing trial for escaping cells, but has refused to give police any significant leads for the arrest of his accomplices.
[contextly_sidebar id=”NFukOnlZ9RrTg1ptEx2P5Zo9phNq6qIV”]The Police are currently under public pressure to aggressively pursue the case as there have been other reports of kidnapping in the country.
But speaking on Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily, Emmanuel Sowatey indicated that Ghana’s security personnel must be up to the task in order to build public confidence.
“No country can fight every security issue completely, but at least you can give some level of minimum confidence to your citizenry that you have some sense of confidence and expertise. You can even do some projections; what kind of human resource and capacity, or what kind of people do we need to train for the next decade. How do you make sure you have a very solid mentoring process so that what we consistently do does not lead to capacity shredding?”
“I think as a country, we need to start orienting ourselves more, seek outside help, collaborate and have a sense of public confidence”, he stressed.
Recent kidnappings a wake-up call for security agencies – Law lecturer
Kwasi Baffoe Intsiful, a Law Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA, has also called on security agencies in the country to up their game following reports of kidnappings in Ghana’s oil enclave, Western Region.
He said the reports must be a wake-up call for the country to find ways of curbing such incidents which was experienced some years back within Nigeria’s oil state, Niger Delta.
The Law Lecturer said the area – Takoradi might be a target for kidnappers because of the commercial oil and gas production activities in the area.
He also mentioned that, if the situation is not nipped in the bud as soon as possible, it might get out of control as the oil and gas industry starts to expand in Takoradi.
“Takoradi is our oil and gas enclave and if you know a bit of the Niger-Delta situation and the hostage-taking and kidnapping in that place, this may be a wake-up call for us to start preparing for what is likely to come once the industry expands. We are going to be confronted with many of these things. We don’t even know whether our local people are going to take a cue from what is happening and also start kidnapping people for ransom,” he said.
‘We’ve new leads on kidnapped girls’ – Police
The Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Redeemer Dedjoe, has said his office has picked up some new leads that could aid their investigations to find the three girls who were abducted in Takoradi.
The family of the victims have accused the Police of not doing enough to rescue the girls but DCOP Dedjoe, however assured that the new leads picked up will help their rescue efforts.
“We have some information coming in and we are trying to work on it to see how best we can handle the case. Sometimes it is difficult to put these leads in public domain because as you are aware, the criminals are also listening to whatever we are doing so if you talk too much, it gives them that confidence to build more fence around themselves. As a result of that, I will appeal that we keep some of these things until we are fortunate to come out with what we are actually looking for.”
–
By: Nii Larte Lartey & Micheal Ogbodu | citinewsroom.com |Ghana | nlartelartey@gmail.com