Following information that there are weapons in the hands of many civilians in Ghana, the Deputy Upper East Regional Police Commander, DCOP Alex K. Amenyo has advised all well-meaning civilians who unlawfully have guns with them to take steps to register them.
According to him, Ghana does not prohibit a civilian from possessing a gun but then there are rules and conditions that need to be met before an individual can possess a gun.
He wants civilians who have acquired guns for the sole purpose of protecting themselves and businesses to register them before any trouble befalls them.
DCOP Amenyo was speaking at the palace of the Paramount Chief of Naga in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality on Thursday, March 26, when he accompanied the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu on his tour of the 16 paramountcies in the region.
“Naba we are aware that some of you have single-barrel guns you use for hunting, you need to register all those ones. Some people have other guns, they need to register all of them so that you can be given the license to use them. If anyone is keeping a gun and fails to register it and you get into trouble because of your gun, you will have yourself to blame.” DCOP Amenyo said.
The Deputy Commander like many residents in the Upper East Region was worried over the recent spate of armed robberies in some parts of the region saying, “… we are doing our part to fight these crimes, unfortunately, the cooperation we are asking from the public is not coming as we wish.”
DCOP Alex Amenyo wants members of the various communities in the region to be ready to volunteer information and also be bold to testify against criminals so that the law can be applied to them and kept away from the public.
Paramount Chief of Naga, Naba Bosingo Olando A. Awuni III whose traditional area has suffered from the hands of armed robbers assured the Ghana Police Service of his commitment and that of his people to support the police to fight crime in the area.
But before they do that Naba Olando, as popularly called, asked that the Naga Police Station which has been under construction for some time, should be completed quickly and get police officers transferred to Naga to work with the residents to fight the crimes.
“The problem is that this area is very far from Bolgatanga and also far from Navrongo, if anything happens here, by the time the police officers will get here the robbers would have run into the bush and left the robbery scene. Many of us have been victims, and I can say, the criminals are using very sophisticated weapons and I wonder how they get them.” Naba Olando Awuni III said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Ghana
