General News of Monday, 3 December 2001

Source: Joy Online

Guns On Sale At Police Stations? -JoyOnline

The police establishment seems to working against itself in the quest to maintain law and order in the country. While it keeps bugging the public about the need to be law abiding and support efforts being made to reduce the increasing crime levels, information available to JOY-FM suggests that the police are in fact doing very little.

At a time when weapons are being retrieved from people possessing them without the required documents, the police are handing out weapons to the public without going through any of the security checks mandated by law. JOY-FM investigations have revealed that weapons are being sold at police stations.

The Deputy Commissioner Of Police in charge of Operations, Richard Safo Kwateng says it is not true, but JOY-FM can confirm that the practice has been going on. The only requirement for the police to sell the weapon is ones ability to pay, determine which weapon you want and have a thumb for a thump print.

The increase in armed robbery cases in the last couple of months has been attributed to the proliferation of small arms. Some including government officials also blamed the military regime of ex President Rawlings for the crimes, claiming that many people were supplied with weapons, which were not retrieved.

The action of the police is what some security sources say is the increase in the manufacture of locally made, but sophisticated weapons. About 40,000 small arms are manufactured within the country in a week, which are sold to ordinary citizens.