Kumasi security strategy not convincing - Dr. Anning

Dr. Kwesi Anning of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has expressed doubts about plans by the Ghana Police Service to deal with escalating state of insecurity in Kumasi.

The acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Alhassan, held a meeting with President John Mahama on the security situation in Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi.

Deputy Minister of Information, Murtala Mohammed today said the strategy is to reinforce the number of police personnel in the region, target motorbike users, but would keep other strategies secret for strategic reasons.

However, speaking on Top story, the security expert gave reasons why he believed these strategies though “welcoming" were “not convincing”.

Reinforcement actually weakened security in other places, he said.

“By reinforcing Kumasi you take critical numbers from elsewhere”. This he said meant weakening the security of another region.

These are not petty criminals. They can read between the lines and “shift their operations elsewhere,“ he analysed.

According to the security expert, a recycled strategy of reinforcement showed a wider problem: lack of police personnel.

“We have failed woefully as a nation since Archer's report in 1991 to beef up the police ”. He said the 24,000 police force in Ghana was half of what was needed on the ground.

Further to this, targeting suspicious motorbikes has been tried and tested. It has been a defective strategy and "it's was not the first time," he said.

He revealed it has not worked before in Bawku , Navrongo and the unregulated “okada” riders in Accra meant this strategy was “grabbing at straw”.

He debunked the position that the Police could not reveal details of their security plans to the public because “you don't know who is listening”.

He said that in the 21st century “providing security information is not a privilege”.

Fighting crime is a collective responsibility, he asserted and added that a “bit more information will make people feel relaxed”.

But the deputy minister of information, Murtala Mohammed insisted that keeping other plans secret was a common practice in advanced democracies.

He said those who didn't want to be assured, could not be assured. The fact that the Presidency has met security chiefs was reassuring enough.

He said although he agreed with other problems outlined by Dr. Anning, they were for the long-term. Government for now needs to tackle an emergency problem.