An unfortunate corporal of the Ghana Armed Forces on peace keeping in Lebanon has been arrested for illegally trying to smuggle two short guns out of Lebanon to Ghana.
Another 79 soldiers who successfully dispatched their guns by sea to Ghana are being trailed for arrest and retrieval of the guns when they arrive at the ports.
A source at the military barracks in Tamale told this reporter that the military man (name withheld for now) and 79 others on completing their peace keeping assignment in Lebanon bought the guns from a shop for export to Ghana, since gun selling is fast becoming a lucrative business.
The source told Public Agenda that a pistol in Lebanon costs $250 and can be sold in Ghana for more than GH¢2,500 about four times the price .He said the high cost of the sophisticated guns has lured many military men into illegally importing guns into the country for sale to civilians.
Giving details, the source said the corporal was arrested when he tried boarding a plane with the guns hidden in a speaker after the cargo plane failed to arrive for their luggage. For that reason the officials decided that the luggage be sent by sea, instead of by air.
The source told this reporter that it took more than four hours for the UN command to lobby the Lebanese government to release the corporal and also took the Ghana government another four to five hours to lobby the UN command for man to be released for trial in Ghana.
Investigators traced the source of the gun to a shop and the shop owner disclosed that, the corporal was just one of the many Ghanaian soldiers who bought two or more guns from him. He revealed that eighty Ghanaian soldiers bought guns from him with some buying as many as ten guns.
The source said some well meaning military officers are unhappy about the increasing importation of arms by some military men and women. "Look every body is now buying a gun which is not good and this is what has destabilize many countries", he lamented.
According to security experts, the proliferation of arms among civilians is the cause of the upsurge in crime and the many bloody chieftaincy disputes across the country.
