A Security Analyst, Adam Bonaa has called on the government to station a K9 Security Unit at the Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region to check the proliferation of arms in the area.
Speaking to Francis Abban on Morning Starr Thursday, the Security Expert indicated that besides stationing K9 in the area, the Security Agencies must give some training and titbits on intelligence gathering to the market women, farmers, traders to help with information on suspicious characters.
According to him, most of the weapons are not manufactured in Bawku rather they are brought in from neighbouring areas.
Mr. Bonaa also advised that there must be an Informal Reward System where people would be paid on the report on persons illegally in possession of firearms to check the situation.
“One of the surest ways of detecting weapons is the use of the K9, when you go to most of these International Airports, you have the K9 Unit either dictating weapons or drugs. Let’s begin to have specific purposes for our K9 Unit that was taken off but now the new IGP has brought it.
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“So let’s have a permanent K9 Unit in the Bawku Municipality that would be able to pick up illicit arms in the hands of people. They (people) themselves would fear to move around and use them (arms). If I know that I can carry a firearm in the car or in my smock and it cannot be seen, the chances are that I can hold a firearm and go about committing a crime and you will not find me,” he advised.
Mr. Bonaa also called for a holistic approach to the Bawku instability that has lasted for 40-50-years now in the area.
The Ministry of Interior has by Executive Instrument imposed a curfew on Bawku Municipality and its environs in the Upper East Region.
The curfew takes effect from 4:00 pm to 6:00 am Wednesday 24th November 2021.
In a press release, the Ministry indicated that the imposition has been as a result of insecurity in the Municipality and was subsequently advised by the Upper East Regional Security Council.
“Government calls on the Chiefs, Elders, Opinion Leaders, Youth and people of the area to exercise restraint in the face of the challenges confronting them as well as to use non-violent means to channel their energies into ensuring peace,” the Minister for Interior, Ambrose Dery cautioned.
