On 26th November 2020 when the president on his central region campaign trail visited Gomoa Buduburam (Liberia Camp) the appeal of the Chief of the town Nana Kojo Essel to the president were only two and these were made succinctly by the Chief to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed
Forces.
The appeal made by the chief were; one the vehicular traffic situation and two the insecurity in the community, ordinarily when a president on a campaign trail visits a community most chiefs use such occasions to request or appeal for schools, hospitals, community centres, water, electricity etc. Rarely do chiefs report security issues and for that matter appeal for redress of insecurity in their communities.
For the Chief to forgo the request for social amenity stuffs and appeal for redress of insecurity in his town goes a long way to tell us that the place is very insecure.
The passionate appeal of the chief to the president with regards to the gross insecurity in Buduburam popularly referred to as Liberia Camp was something that didn’t come as a surprise to me and most Ghanaians because of the intelligence, information and experience some of us have had and heard about the place.
Insecurity in Buduburam:
Liberia Camp has become a sprouting and an infectious ground for criminals and also a settlement for crime engineering. Hardcore criminals who are able to escape arrest and jail sentence for perpetrating crime in other parts of the country and even within the ECOWAS sub-region seek refuge in the community, as a result turning the community into a crime estate.
The thriving environment of Buduburam for criminals has also made the place a training grounds or an apprenticeship centre for learning or acquiring skills in crime to become professional criminals in society.
Innocent people who find themselves in Liberia Camp by virtue of destiny, coincidence or accident end up relinquishing their bright future aspirations to pursue knowledge and skills in crime because of how enticing, lucrative and ubiquitous crime has become in this community.
The insecurity narrative about this community is nasty and un-Ghanaian, all activities that the 1992 constitution of our motherland interprets, describes and deem as crime goes on there and goes on
unchallenged by our state security apparatus something that makes it troubling.
From organized crime, cybercrime, mobile money fraud, drug peddling, prostitution, armed robbery, homosexual prostitution, rape, gangsterism, vehicle theft, land guards etc.
In fact, Liberia camp has become a community for inventing new crimes and its methodologies. Crime is not only perpetuated by these felons but they also retail and wholesale criminals for crime activities, one can go to Liberia camp and hire a criminal at a fee to execute crime for him or her.
Regardless of the day, time and location, Innocent people who dwell and commutes in Buduburam are likely to experience some form of crime – from Vehicle theft, weapon – point robbery, scam, physical torture, rape, land guards attack, theft and among others, the least or minor crime in Liberia Camp is “gang torturing”.