Allow the criminal code to work

Ever since the final results of the 2008 presidential election was announced, the people trading and living around the Agbogloshie market in Accra have not known peace.

The area has persistently been recording violence mostly among our northerner brothers and sisters. When the violence broke soon after the election there were reports that it had political undertones but this was dismissed by some of the political parties.

On Wednesday, this week, the violence broke out again this time about thirty Kiosks and personal belongings of some of the victims were burnt.

Others were also stabbed allegedly with knives. The police after initial investigation into the case have established that the violence has ethnic undertones and that the people are only using politics as a camouflage.

The police service has therefore vowed to clamp down on the perpetrators of the latest crime and we at The Chronicle fully support the idea. Ethnically motivated issues cause most of the conflicts in the African continent. Ghana has not been left out with this endemic in the continent as we currently have security problems at Bawku, Dagbon and other spots in the country. Amount that had been spent in maintaining law and order at the aforementioned places could have been used to better the living standard of the people but it has just gone down the drain.

The Chronicle is therefore calling on the government to treat the Agbogbloshie case with dispatch before it degenerates into large-scale conflict.

Cases of all those who have been arrested in connection with the violence should be treated according to the dictates of the criminal code without looking at their political colouration.

Already Bawku, Dagbon and Anlo conflicts and pockets of others we mentioned earlier have dented the image of this country and we should not allow Accra to fall into the same pit.

If those who perpetrate violence are arrested, prosecuted and thrown jail, it would send signal to others who have ethnic scores to settle with their brothers to reconsider their decision.

The Chronicle also suggests to the government to appoint professionals to go round this ethnic prone communities to educate them on the need to avoid retribution and instead champion the path of reconciliation.

With think if this is done it would help to ease the tension among the ethnic groups who are involved in this violence.