Arms trafficking is the illicit trade of contraband small arms and ammunition
The Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission has called on the general public to provide information on any illegal source of weapon trafficking around them when they see one to help in the clampdown of illegal weapons on the streets.
This comes on the back of the high rate of armed robbery cases being recorded in the country two months into the New Year 2021.
In an interview with the Commission, they explained that guns have found its way into the hands of the wrong people in the society and this is very alarming as the country is recording a high rate of killings through robberies.
“With all that is happening, one doesn’t need any evidence to tell you that guns are in the hands of the wrong people. Police officers are being shot and killed every day in the country and this is very worrying, the weapons in the hands of these robbers are not supposed to even be in their hands in the first place and it looks like they are getting access to very sophisticated weapons to the extent that they are now able to meet the police boot for boot, these weapons are not supposed to be in their hands because there are military types of weapons” he noted.
He further stated that an investigation has to be carried out to ascertain how these “military types” of weapons get into the hands of these robbers.
“These are weapons that are only shipped and its only states that can buy for their security agencies, individuals cannot go anywhere to buy them, so it means that they are first of all getting it from the black market and the source will be that it’s being leaked from some official state armoires, not within Ghana but it could be within our sub-region, other ECOWAS countries where the military type of weapons are being leaked,” he said.
Reacting to what the commission is doing to get rid of illegal guns on the streets it stated that a thorough investigation has to be carried and this can be achieved if all citizens contribute by giving out information from an unusual source of weapon trafficking around them.
“The most important thing right now is to work to identify the source, where these weapons are coming from and this is intelligence-led, it is information sharing and information sharing is normally from the citizens, if you see any unusual stuff around you, please report to the police because these weapons don’t move by themselves and end up in the hands of criminals, they are marketed by individuals, by trafficking them” a senior officer at the commission appealed.
