Dr Kwesi Aning, the Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research ,Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre , has urged government, and other stakeholders to prioritise issues of public safety to ensure sustained peace and development.

Dr Aning, who is also a Security Expert, expressed concern about the increasing rate of public safety and crimes in the country, saying it was imperative for authorities to provide the requisite support to respective institutions in ensuring the safety of the citizenry.

Speaking at the launch of the Public Road safety and Crime Watch report on Tuesday, he expressed worry on the current tragedies of healthcare delivery system, adding that, the country had failed to pay critical attention to its insufficient facilities with regards to the increasing population.

The event which was organised at the British Council Auditorium brought together stakeholders in the security and crime sector to chart the way forward through collaboration to address emerging public and safety issues.

“We have not been bold enough to look at our population and the number of various healthcare categories we need, so there is no doubt that our health facilities and delivery system are woefully inadequate,” he added.

Dr Aning lamented on the inadequate number of industry players in the healthcare delivery and the lack of infrastructure, which he said, was the teething problems, adding that the phenomenon had contributed to the profuse loss of lives in several hospitals.

Juxtaposing the situation on crime rate for the year 2017/18, he said, 2017 recorded the highest number of crime cases as compared to 2018, with Accra recording 191 cases.

“The number of robbery incidents from January to third week of May 2018, is skewed towards Accra with the highest number of crime cases and with Ashanti region recording the second highest number of 123”.

He said a number of Police officers lost their lives in their line of duty, with several sustaining various injuries.

“The record shows that 48 Police Officers lost their lives between 2013 to 2018 while 8 per cent lost their lives in 2018 which is less than that of 15 per cent in 2017”.

Dr Aning advised government to make available the needed resources for essential institutions that are responsible for public safety to discharge their mandate in an effective and efficient manner and charged on the public to take responsibility in ensuring basic safety and security measures.

He called on the Ghana Police to revise their mode of training and operations to meet the changing nature of the Ghanaian population.

Professor Kwasi Amponsah, the Chairman of the event stated that, as citizens, there was the need to be abreast with current issues concerning road safety and crime, since the number of crime rate keeps increasing.

He, therefore, called on the government and other partners to assist the Bureau of Public Safety (BPS) with the necessary resources to improve on their operations.