The Ashanti region is seriously working to combat the proliferation of arms in the region, this is according to the regional minister-designate, Simon Osei-Mensah.

The Minister-designate told Parliament’s Appointments Committee that under his leadership as regional minister, the small arms commission was being empowered to do its work and help secure the citizenry.

He was responding to Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu who asked about what the nominee planned to do about the proliferation of small arms in the region.

“I have had discussions with the chair of the Small Arms Commission, Rev. Frimpong Manso and I have allocated an office at the Regional Coordinating Council to them to come and use it as temporal office whiles we look for a permanent office for them. So that we can work together to arrest this menace,” the nominee said.

The National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NACSA) as recently as October 2020 called for increased security alertness in places identified as political 'hotspots' areas ahead of the December 2020 polls.

At the launch of an anti-electoral violence campaign dubbed: “Ballots without Bullets” in Accra, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr Jones Borteye Applerh, said the proliferation of firearms in the country called for urgent action, especially in the Ashanti Region.

The Region, he said, topped the list of violent-prone areas with 635 flashpoints on the Police Service statement.