Dealing with the land-guards menace

There is no gainsaying the fact that the menace of land-guard has gained notoriety in the national capital of Ghana, Accra. The mention of land-guards tends to send shivers down the spine of prospective land buyers.

Many well-meaning Ghanaians have abandoned the idea of buying plots of land and putting on them their own houses. The reason is simple: the fear of land-guards who do not only intimidate land owners, especially in new communities, but also go to the extreme of killing innocent and rightful land owners!

The situation has grown from bad to worst that almost on a daily basis these heartless land-guards are seen combing new sites and preying on particularly new land-owners. There are even reports that land-guards in this country have a parent association under which they take orders from. Interesting!

What makes them scary is that they are armed to the teeth anytime they go for their so-called daily routine checks at new sites. And what appears to be equally worrying is the fact that the police are finding it extremely difficult to deal with them.

It is as if the police have been overwhelmed when it comes to fighting land-guards in this country.

Consequently, more innocent Ghanaians continue to suffer in the hands of these notorious land-guards. Those who resolve to take the fight to these land-guards end up losing their lives.

Sadly, we have allowed these land-guards to overly grow wings, and their activities have not only become a threat to lives but more importantly, to the country’s security.

This is where Today is elated at the call by the Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to join the police in the fight against the land-guard menace. It is a menace that would require the collaborative effective of the military and police, particularly when these land-guards patrol new sites holding all kinds of guns.

For us at Today we believe the defence minister has made the right call, by asking the military to help in flushing out land-guards in this country. It is important, therefore, that we take the fight to these land-guards` instead of waiting for them to strike before we react.

In that way we will be making loads of in-roads in combating the threat that land-guards pose in this country. Today believes that we will also make progress in the fight against the land-guard menace if we attach the same level of seriousness like we are doing to galamsey.