The Director-General for Special Duties at the Ghana Police Service, COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, has indicated the service’s intention to achieve yet another gun violence-free general election.
He has urged all weapon owners to register their arms and renew their licenses so as not to fall short of the laws of the land.
He was speaking at the launch of the “Ballot Without Bullets” campaign initiated by the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons.
“There was no single gunshot during the period of elections in the previous elections and I assure that we are going to use all the strategies we used during the elections period and also add more strategies to make sure that there will be ballots without bullets. We have been organizing a series of intelligence operations and also making sure that persons in possession of illicit weapons will renew their licenses and failure to do so renders their usage illegal.”
COP Tetteh Yohuno further said it is illegal for persons with registered weapons to take them to public places.
According to him, this makes its usage illegal.
“So there will be education to ensure that people who have such weapons will register and also renew their licenses. It is also wrong for persons to also transfer or give the registered weapons to other persons to use. We will also enforce the law as to how weapons have to be used and to make sure those who have legally registered their weapons do not take them to public places.”
IGP assures of adequate security on December 7
The Inspector-General of the Ghana Police Service, James Oppong-Boanuh has earlier assured Ghanaians that the service will provide adequate security at all polling centres across the country on December 7.
Mr. Oppong-Boanuh noted that they identified various flashpoints in the region and are going to put in place adequate security on election day.
“The amount of security we provide here is the standard security but if you look at a place like Banda, we would have to beef up security in that area.”
“So definitely, those flashpoints are going to be properly protected. Fortunately, we have had the registration as a form of rehearsal and it has helped us to identify the hotspots that would require special protection on the election day,” he said.