General News of Monday, 12 March 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2018-03-12
US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson
US Citizens resident in Ghana do not have to be overly concerned as far as their safety and security is concerned, United States Ambassador to Ghana has assured.
Robert P. Jackson noted whilst speaking on the ’21 Minutes with KKB’ show that Ghana’s crime rates are relatively low per statistics over the years suggesting that petty crimes can often be avoided simply by being aware of one’s surroundings.
His concerns, however, are about the recent increase in crime rates and violence with criminals engaging in well planned and swift attacks on unsuspecting victims.
“Ghana is considered a level one threat for crime and security broadly on a scale of 4 so it’s on a minimum level. So I feel very safe here but I think Ghanaians have the right to be concerned about the recent spectacular robberies, shootings.”
The rambo-styled broad day light robberies and shootings have led to the loss some lives and huge sums. Reports on the rampant social vices in Accra and Tema in the Greater Accra Region has left many Ghanaians nationwide in a state of fear and panic.
For Mr. Jackson, “the police need more people. They also need more resources” and he believes President Akufo-Addo’s promise to provide those resources in his State of the Nation Address will help address such issues.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has assured Ghanaians that the police are in control of security in spite of the dizzying reports of armed robbery attacks in parts of the country.
He upheld that the police are constantly changing their modules to keep up with the increasing sophistication by the armed robbery gang whose activities appear to be creating a state of fear and panic across the country.
In his view however, the US Ambassor believes it is too soon to determine if or not the crime rate in the country will reduce with these measures being adopted by the security and defence ministries and agencies.
“I think we will only know when we see the results. It’s hard to predict whether crime will go down until we see crime rates going down. Logically it should go down if more security personnel are available and more mobile.”