Criminals will upgrade from AK 47 to explosives soon – Prof Aning warns
Security Analyst Professor Emmanuel Kwesi Aning has cautioned about a trend in which criminal gangs would soon use military-grade explosives in their operations.
“We are going to see a transition from AK-47, and pump action guns to the usage of explosives in the next couple of months or years to create more fear because the explosives are also easily available,” he revealed.
The criminals would do so, because, they know that “arrests and prosecutions are extremely low”.
He said the probability of targeting and getting profits compared to the cost and ease in acquiring guns make crime attractive.
According to him, the absence of punitive measures make robberies“less risky and profiteering.”
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He was commenting on recent attacks across the country.
He cited multiple variables as contributing factors to kidnappings, armed robberies and other forms of criminal activities.
This includes a positive correlation between criminal action, lack of arrest, fewer prosecutions, lenient punishments, and small arms availability.
The lack of legislation and a legal framework for the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) to check the importation, registration, marking, tracing, and standardisation of weapons poses a huge challenge.
Another driver of criminal activities is the growing population dynamics and unplanned urban spaces that create challenges for law enforcement, particularly the identification of people.
“Gun availability, narcotics, increasingly frustrated youth, a sense of exclusion from the society, and underground vigilante groups, create a complex mix, leading to these criminal activities,” he emphasised.
“We are in a state of rottenness in a society where the values and norms have shifted over time, leading to the glorification and romanticisation of crimes and the proceeds that arise thereof,” he bemoaned.
The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) made the comments in a Joy FM interview on Wednesday on the back of numerous violent crimes in the last few weeks.
On June,11,2021, a 43-year-old man, Richard Bokor, was arrested by the Achimota police for attempted robbery on the GIMPA road in Accra.
According to police, the suspect smashed the side glass of a vehicle in an attempt to rob its occupant.
This arrest brings to four the number of suspected robbers arrested on the stretch in one week, following several complaints of robbery attacks by road users.
On Wednesday, June,9,2021, two armed men broke into a forex bureau near Honeysuckle in Osu in a daylight robbery.
On the same day, a 34-year-old man was robbed and shot at Pigfarm.
He was pursued by two armed men on a motorbike at the Pig Farm roundabout.
He was shot in the stomach after disclosing to the robbers he had no valuables in his backpack.
Currently, the unidentified victim is receiving treatment at the 37 Military Hospital.