Kumasi, Aug 4, GNA- Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah's book entitled "Fighting Armed Robbery in Ghana", was launched in Kumasi on Friday.

The 332-page literary work by the Ghanaian legal practitioner and criminologist, who is also the Secretary of National Identification Authority, was aimed at helping combat the rise in armed robbery in the country.

Prof. Attafuah explained that armed robbery, a real menace in the Ghanaian society occur whenever force is applied in stealing from a person using machetes, guns and dangerous weapons. He said the book enumerated three reasons for crime as: when there is a motivated offender, when there are people who are attractive targets and when there is limited or absence of capable guardianship. Prof. Attafuah also said that the book attributed armed robbery to economic inequality, deviance, unplanned urban development where wayward youth hide in ghettos and uncompleted buildings.

He said the literary work also identifies little education and the lack of vocational skills as well as unemployment as some of the causes of armed robbery in the society.

Prof. Attafuah said 'The young ones whose parents left for abroad to seek greener pastures and the ones branded as not very good in school or drop outs, are now the armed gangs who engaged in robbery". The book educates readers on what to do when some one falls a victim to armed robbery, the Author said.

Prof. Attafuah called on government to deal with armed robbery by paying workers well, setting good priorities and focusing on education, and making sure that children stay in school. Dr. Mrs. Gykua Plange Rhule, a Paediatrician Consultant at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), in a brief review of the book said it is a "must-read book" since it addresses the issue of armed robbery to which all and sundry are vulnerable

Mr. Anthony Kwadwo Yeboah, a legal practitioner, also said the book talks against instant justice and mob justice against armed robbers, adding that they also have fundamental human rights just as any law abiding citizen, and these rights he noted should be protected. He described lynching of robbers as gruesome, adding that as much as the public sympathizes with victims of armed robbery, they are equally entitled to have their fundamental human rights respected and protected. Oheneba Adusei Poku, Akyimpemhene of Kumasi, who launched the book, said armed robbery was a problem that confronts all Ghanaians, and commended the author for coming out with the literary work to help fight the phenomenon. He called on the public to help the security agencies to fight the armed robbery to ensure sanity in the country. The first book was auctioned as GH¢100.