President John Dramani Mahama, who is visiting Equitorial Guinea, would make a strong case on the threats and crime wave in the Gulf of Guinea and help in drawing strategies to combat maritime crime during his stay in Malabo.
He would collaborate with his neighbours to find ways of combating the crime wave and to promote trade and other commercial activities in their territorial waters.
Mr Felix Kwakye-Ofosu, a Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations who briefed the media at the Flagstaff House on Friday, said President Mahama would also state the performance of Ghana in stemming the crime wave in her territorial waters.
” For some time now, there have been series of maritime concerns in the Gulf of Guinea giving indications that all is not well in terms of trade and other commercial activities,” he said.
“The summit in Equatorial Guinea would therefore give the impetus to map out strategies that would help them to stem the rising crime and criminal activities including piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and beyond.”
Mr Kwakye-Ofosu said Ghana was in touch with Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast and Nigeria and this cooperation is yielding dividends.
The Deputy Minister said the government had embarked on an exercise to ward off all criminal activities by establishing the Maritime Police that had started working and by equipping the Navy to step up its surveillance.
He gave the assurance that President Mahama’s meeting with other leaders at the summit would also give them a common strategy that would help them to fight crime in the region.
President Mahama who was accompanied by Mr Mark Woyongo, Minister for Defence, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah, Minister for Energy and Petroleum and Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister for the Interior, is expected back on August 10.