Security Expert, Dr Kwesi Aning
Security Expert, Dr Kwesi Aning has shot down calls for the Military to be deployed to fight against armed robbery in the country which is on the increase in recent times.
On Tuesday, armed robbers stormed the Royal Motors company at the North Industrial Area in Accra amidst sporadic gunshots and succeeded in bolting with at least Gh500,000 of the company’s sales.
Just in about 24 hours later, armed robbers in Tema also shot dead a Lebanese businessman on Wednesday bolting with a cash sum of GHC200,000 after the deceased who was a worker with soap manufacturing firm Delta Agro had visited the Zenith Bank.
The incident has heightened fear among the citizenry prompting calls by the Minority in Parliament for the immediate nationwide deployment of a joint Military/Police taskforce to clampdown on the criminals.
But Dr Aning holds the view that involving the Military now will be unnecessary.
“No is not time yet for the Military, bringing the Military in is dangerous. It socializes the Military, it makes them lose their aura of invincibility and being the very last force that need to be brought in times of crises. We haven’t gotten there yet.
“Bringing the Military in and of course we’ve been doing this gradually in which we’re taking our Military into a police force, doing policing duties that are not their fundamental primary function. The Ghana Police Service, we tend to lambaste them but it’s a potentially effective institution. Politicians have failed in understanding the Service, the function they perform, the types of interventions and retooling the Police Service needs.”
