Weapons of war

The weapons which pictures were displayed on the pages of DAILY GUIDE on Monday were scary. We have always said it that we should not be complacent about the security situation in the country. The feeling that we are too distant from the theatres of conflict to be bothered is a bad and erroneous assumption.

Mali is not too far away from Ghana as are other conflict zones: weapons from such zones can easily seep through into the country through traditional routes used by traders.

It is our take that when those behind the smuggled weapons into the country start singing, security experts would glean a lot of intelligence about the happenings in the underworld of gunrunners.

Such information, we have no doubt, would assist managers of our security to map out more efficient measures at making our country safer.

We are told that the consignment had some anti-aircraft ammunition and we wonder why the hell these are being brought into the country.

Armed robbers depend on small arms such as AK 47s for their mostly nightly operations; not, however, weapons which look like MG3s and aircraft machine gun rounds.

If such rounds are in town then perhaps someone somewhere is stockpiling such weapons for some evil plans. That is why the investigation into the matter should go beyond the ordinary. The suspects should be treated well so that useful information can be extracted from them. Indeed, such investigation should go beyond our borders to the sources of the firearms.

There is a bigger picture behind this story, which is why we are demanding a better management of it. Perhaps we can understand better how weapons find their way into the country and into the bosom of armed robbers, if we manage it well.

We must all be grateful to God that this consignment failed to reach its final destination. But it would be instructive to find out which other consignments passed through the net of security checks from their origins.

It is also instructive to observe how important leads from the general public help in the security management of the country. We have learnt that the law enforcement agents were fed with valuable information as in most cases of this sort and which eventually led to the arrest of the suspects in Allabar in Kumasi.

The police know more than others about how their cooperation with the public can lead to important discoveries such as the one under review. It behoves them, therefore, to seek the utmost support of the public in their work so that more arrests can be made in other criminal matters. We think that the arrest of the suspects with their booty is only a tip of the iceberg of what goes on in the underworld.