Security and Safety Analyst, Adam Bonaa
Curfew imposed on Bawku
Adam Bonaa calls for proactive intelligence gathering in Bawku
Upper East REGSEC announce ban on wearing of smock
Security and Safety Anaylst, Adam Bonaa has entreated the Ghana Police Service to station a K-9 unit in the Bawku Municipality and its environs as a measure to fight security threats in the area.
The Ministry of Interior on the advice of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council has imposed a curfew on the people of Bawku and its environs.
The curfew which came into effect on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, according to the ministry, is a result threat of insecurity in the affected area.
But speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Adam Bonaa charged the police service to be proactive in its intelligence gathering in order to keep the threats that exist in the Bawku areas under check.
Noting that the 40-year-old recurring conflict in Bawku is fueled by illicit arm trade, Mr Bonaa said the police need to station a K-9 unit in the area to manage the proliferation of guns.
“The police should have a K-9 unit in Bawku; the K-9 unit which literally you would want to call the dogs Unit. Dogs, when properly trained, can sniff out firearms, ammunition and other explosive devices. If we have a K-9 unit there, those who would want to carry firearms, conceal them in their clothing or in their vehicles or in their motorbikes or bicycles and all that are going to be fished out.
“Once you people know that if I conceal an illicit firearm I am going to be arrested and prosecuted because there is a K-9 unit around, this issue of illicit gun trading and illicit use of firearms in fanning some of these conflicts would be a thing of the past,” Adam Bonaa said.
The Minister for Interior, Ambrose Dery, in a statement announcing the curfew imposed on Bawku further directed a ban on “all persons in the afore-mentioned communities and their environs from carrying arms, ammunition or any offensive weapons.”
The Bawku Municipal Security Council in a subsequent statement also directed a ban on the wearing of smocks within the Bawku area.
According to the REGSEC, “this was necessitated by the fact that criminals or unscrupulous elements hide arms and ammunition in smocks and attack opponents or innocent civilians.”
In his interview with GhanaWeb, Adam Bonaa attributed the current development in Bawku and its environs to factors including a long-standing chieftaincy and land tenure dispute as well as pure criminality.
Describing the imposition of curfew as a short-term measure in ensuring peace in Bawku, Mr Bonaa called on government to mediate between the feuding factions.
The security analyst also urged security agencies in the country to ramp up intelligence gathering as a way of proactively dealing with security threats within the Bawku areas.
“Let’s have a situation where our ability to gather intelligence and proactively use the intelligence to quell some of these things before they start, it is very important.
“Let’s have solid intelligence on the ground. It shouldn’t be as and when situations get out of hand we send uniformed men there. It should rather be that, we have intelligence officers there permanently working and picking information, ensuring same,” Adam Bonaa said.
On the issue of dialogue, he further stated that “the root causes of these conflicts must be dealt with from the root base. There are those who are also benefiting from this conflict and I call them conflictpreneurs. Theirs is that, the more there is conflict the more they benefit. They are people who sell illicit firearms and so if the conflict is stopped, they won’t be able to sell their firearms.
“I want to see a situation where the people involved in this in terms of criminally fanning this conflict are arrested and prosecuted by law and those who disagree purely based on law or chieftaincy or tradition are brought to a roundtable to dialogue,” he said.