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Armed Robbers Impose Curfew On Many Ghanaians: Another Authority
2 August 2009
The fear and panic instilled in many Ghanaians by callous armed robbers have resulted in unofficial curfews imposed in certain residential areas particularly in Teshie and Cantonments. As a result of the atmosphere of insecurity in these places residents vacate the streets by 7:00 pm and stay indoors till day break making sure they escape the prying eyes of these notorious armed robbers. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, who confirmed this said the grave situation has to be tackled in a robust manner else Ghana risks having parallel crime institutions as it obtains in Somalia. "Now the strategy is to take the fight to the armed robbers; it is a difficult war because you are fighting faceless persons, an enemy you don't know. But we are making sure we don't lose the war," he asserted with much confidence while responding to questions when the Ministry of Interior took its turn at the Meet-the-Press. Sometimes the armed robbers play what the IGP termed as "machoism" by engaging in shootouts with his men, but professionals as they are, they invariably overpower them. Mr. Quaye made a passionate appeal to the general public to join the life- preserving war by providing to the Police information on criminals and questionable characters within their communities. According to the Interior Minister, Hon. Cletus A. Avoka, criminal activities such as armed robbery including vehicle snatching and other violent crimes continue be a source of concern to all. As a result the security agencies have devised innovative strategies, including aggressive crime combat and prevention operations to deal with a situation. These measures include strengthening the command and control of operational teams, joint police and military patrols and training, establishment of 'Tent Cities', introduction of day and night checks in vulnerable areas and formation of neighbourhood watch committees. The rest are organization of intelligence swoops, public education and media support, institution of reward system, clamping down on unregistered motor bikes and the setting up of hotlines for communication between the public and the Police. Hon. Avoka disclosed that congestion in the country's prison has been compounded by the meager 60 pesewas spent on each inmate daily. "Only a magician will be able to feed the numbers in prison on such an amount. That is why we need the support of the media in advocating an increase in the Ministry's budgetary allocation". He disclosed that currently the prisons are holding 14,194 mates comprising 10,455 convicted prisoners and 3,727 remand prisoners. "This number far exceeds the prison national occupancy by 79%," he lamented. For instance, Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, built to accommodate 717 prisoners currently holds about 3,000 prisoners. Kumasi Central Prisons holds over 1,800 instead of 600. Sunyani Central Prisons also houses over 800 instead of its capacity of 400. "This overcrowding situation coupled with the Services' inability to attract health professionals to man the prison clinics due to poor conditions has resulted in high occurrence of diseases and sometimes death in the prisons," he added. As one of the measures to decongest the prisons, the Minister said the ministry has plans to expand the "Access to Justice" programme to cover all the 10 regions of the country. This involves moving the courts right to the prisons to try cases involving remand prisoners and the subsequent release of those with good cases. He further disclosed that, in order to clamp down on criminal activities of some users of motor bikes, all motor bikes are to be subjected to checks after 6:00pm. The Police are also to be provided with motor cycles to enable them reach out to unmotorable and inaccessible areas as well as over come traffic jams.
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