Citizens Safety: Are We In a Kind of Banter With the Underworld?

Ghana’s Information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah Saturday affirmed “rumours” already making the rounds thus – “Very worrying reports of potential attacks of extremist elements targeted at Ghana. As we heighten the alertness of intelligence and security agencies, all of us need to be more security conscious and be quick to report any suspicious persons or packages to security agencies,” he tweeted on Saturday May 21.

Following the activities of terrorist groups in neighbouring West African countries, Ghana’s National Security has cautioned churches against possible similar attacks.

The National Security said measures have been instituted in order to forestall these attacks, however; the churches must also be on alert.

“In view of the growing threats of terrorism from the sub-region and the expansionist drive of terrorist groups towards Coastal West African states, with a renewed modus operandi of targeting public gatherings including places of worship, it is imperative that precautionary measures are taken by all stakeholders,” a statement issued on Friday also May 13 said.

When The Anchor sees the statement as placing the entire citizenry on a tenterhook and in-between the proverbial rock and the hard place, one question that comes to mind was what about the nation’s once proud and cherished military intelligence; what about the state’s secret service operatives – the Bureau of National Security BNI-now-turned NIB not ‘National Investment Bank’? We do not need to distress the nation with panic information. This, the paper believes could have been left in the hands of the intel services to handle in a meticulous manner than it’s being handled by politicians.

Ghana had been a proud place of peace and human safety; an oasis of peace in a whole sub-Saharan region of war. As a result, the West African country had been a destination of foreign investors’ businesses, especially so, when a level-headed businessperson wouldn’t dump money in chaos. The country’s peaceful nature was also found and respected in its religiously adherence to nonaligned movement that entertained not to be pulled to right or left of belligerent geopolitics of this world, that in different times, messed themselves up in either ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ wars. Indeed, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is often described as the best in many international peacekeeping missions undertaken and Africa was proud of Ghana.

This paper, however, doesn’t think the enthusiasm of resolute containment of crime, both local and international, had died down. Yes, the country still has the men and women of valour of that noble profession of military, the police and all paramilitary, to their call. Our only fear is whether the real professionals are at the frontline helm of affairs of guaranteeing the safety and peaceful coexistence of the citizenry.

The crippling incidents, The Anchor ponders upon, have been the eye-popping, as well as, eardrum-rupturing macabre often on both social and traditional media, etching on premonition of human suffering and harm’s way.

We could recall last week, watching this gory heinous crime on social media being committed with gusto by fellow humans, who did not only decapitate others, but also remove vital body parts of the unfortunate victims, interestingly under rolling video footage, obviously with mens rea to show to the world how powerful and dread they have become: Footages that got some viewers weeping and others shuddering in fear. The paper, however, heaved a sigh albeit half, when the Eastern Regional (Ghana) authorities were able to assuage initial public fears, the ‘sin’ not emanating from that place as initially attributed.

Enter the large retinue of motor-riding ‘warriors’ arriving at a point attributed to part of the borders of the Volta Region of Ghana. The voice-on branded the over a hundred-member group “Boko Haram” who were aiming at attacking Ghana. Yes, almost all the West African countries – Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and as recent as May 11, Togo. This means the violence from the armed groups and their criminal networks is on the rise across West Africa.

Believably, The Anchor has the feeling a united (in one accord) Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) couldn’t have become this hopeless a victim, but must have the needed force, not only to thwart the mischief, but ably destroy the underworld groove.

The Anchor again asks that nations need to be more proactive in their resolve to contain the rising extremism that tends to swallow the whole of West Africa before venturing in to other parts of the continent.