Security expert, Adib Sani has called on the government to legalise and regulate the operations of local gun manufacturing firms, as a way of enhancing oversight of their activities and other illicit acquisitions by criminals.

According to him, this is a call long overdue and a viable way of dealing with the consistent rise in cases of robbery and arm importation in the country.

Adib Sani argues that once government regulates local weapon manufacturers, systems and structures can be put in place to track persons who acquire guns from them.

In an exclusive interaction with GhanaWeb on the recent rise in robbery cases, he explained that criminals have been emboldened in the country as a result of the influx of small arms which are mostly untraceable.

He said, “these criminals have become so vicious as a result of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons which we are failing to address…there’s an influx of these weapons from other parts of the continent…”

“…the local gun manufacturing industry is another grey area…either we legalise these local gun manufacturers especially in the Alayanyo, Nkonya area, and the Ashanti region, Bawku. We need to legalese and regulate their activities so we’re able to know who and who are producing.

He further suggested ways in which their operations can be regulated by the government to curb corruption.

“…Before anyone comes to buy these weapons, the person would have to go through the police processes. We’ll get them to imprint serial numbers on it (guns) and craft the barrel in such a way that any bullet fired can be traced to the gun,” Adib Sani noted.