Wa, June 15, GNA - Naa Dr. Banka Nagyaala Ora II, Divisional Chief of the Sombo traditional area at he weekend attributed violence that results from land, chieftaincy and religious disputes to the slow processes in court.

He said judgement of such cases, unduly delay and thereby create panic and anxiety among communities, which influence them to resort to the use of arms to achieve justice.

Naa Ora II, who stated this during the launch of campaign against the misuse and spread of small arms and light weapons at Wa advised the courts and lawyers to treat cases on land, religious and chieftaincy with dispatch to avoid such violent situations.

He said people grow impatient as a result of the slow pace of judgement and if the courts speed up their processes people would have no justifications to resort to the use of arms.

Naa Ora II also blamed the influx of small arms into private hands to the high rate of thefts cases and urged the security Agencies to get rid of crime to be able to deal with the proliferation of arms. The Divisional Chief called on the government to promote agriculture and make it attractive to the youth to divert them from petty stealing.

Mr. Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister, urged the media and security Agencies to be more vigilant at the entry points to reduce the inflow of small arms into the country.

He said the government should empower the Ghana National commission on small arms to execute their duties effectively.

The Regional Minister appealed to the public to expose people who deal in such arms to ensure security and safety in the country. Mr. Daniel Andoh, Programmes officer of United Nations Development Programme said the project had four components, capacity building of National Small arms Commission, Awareness raising and Education, support to the National Firearms Bureau and baseline survey of small arms proliferation.

He said his outfit would continue to support the Commission to make Ghana a peaceful place to live in.

Captain (rtd) Nkrabea Effah Dartey, Deputy Minister of Interior who chaired the function appealed to the media not to sensationalise issues concerning national security.

He commended the UNDP for their continuous support to make Ghana peaceful and violent free country and pledged to help implement their proposals.