GHANSA calls for stiffer punishment for arms dealers

Accra (Greater Accra) – In the face of armed robbery, murder and other forms of gun-related crimes, the Ghana Action Network on Small Arms (GHANSA) has called for stiffer punishment for those caught wielding guns illegally.

The secretary of GHANSA, Afi Yakubu, who made the suggestion when she was interviewed on the small arms proliferation last week, also called for sustained education of all Ghanaians on the use and misuse of small arms and their impact on the security of such a small nation as Ghana.

The punishment that GHANSA is calling for is the type, which will serve as adequate deterrent to others who are likely to be attracted by the gun, and that should be higher than what obtains currently.

“Since 1973 domestic laws on small arms have not be reviewed and so some of the deterrent measures in that legislation in the Constitution have become outmoded,” Miss Yakubu lamented. She explained, “anybody caught possessing an unlicensed weapon, prosecuted and found guilty is fined ten cedis (?10.00) over the past ten years”.

She reported the existence of gangsters among the country’s gunsmiths, saying such criminals should neither be permitted to repair arms nor manufacture them. She therefore called on the government to review that legislation in the Constitution.

The GHANSA secretary also suggested that the government should encourage those who manufacture illegal arms in the country to come out to register, as that will make it easier to identify them by giving them marks on their weapons.

When this paper asked whether the Immigration Service and Customs, Excise and Preventive Services are manning the country’s boarders satisfactorily - in view of the fact that some people manage to smuggle in arms from other countries, the GHANSA secretary said the two services are poorly equipped to work satisfactorily, hence the successful smuggling activities across the borders.

Asked to comment on the deployment of military and police personnel to Alarvanyo and Nkonya in the Volta region she said it is a laudable thing but they should not focus on the conflict zones alone but rather extend their peace-keeping operations to other parts of the country to retrieve illegal arms.

She also called on civil society to be involved in sensitizing, monitoring and supervising to assist the security personnel to fight the proliferation of small arms in the country or report them to the authorities.