Activate anti-terrorism laws to deal with separatists – Adam Bonaa to govt

Security analyst Adam Bonaa is asking government to activate and broaden the country’s law on anti-terrorism to deal with secessionist groups in the Volta Region.

His call follows president Akufo-Addo’s comment about the attacks carried out by members of the group in the Volta region which has so far claimed one life and left a number of persons injured.

According to the president, although there is an element of surprise when it comes to attacks by terrorist groups, the security agencies are working to counter the group.

But security analyst Adam Bonaa says the president’s description of the group as terrorists should compel government to activate and broaden the anti-terrorism laws of the country.

He told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr “you [president] refer to them as terrorists, so once he is referring to them as terrorists then what you do is to activate.

“Do we have any anti-terrorism laws? If we don’t have any anti-terrorism laws then we need to quickly put a legislative instrument in place that will make it punitive just like other countries do.”

He continued “and so once he is calling them terrorists, then it means that we need a law that will criminalize those who are sponsoring them, criminalize those who are affiliated to them, that will criminalize everything these people are doing.”

After being prompted by host Francis about the existence of the anti-terrorism regulations 2012 LI 2181, Mr Bonaa noted “so how broad is that, does that factor this issue of local terrorism?”

“This law is not broadened to capture all of this. It becomes very difficult because whatever you do outside the law becomes illegal, if it ends up in court you are gonna be in trouble,” he added.