Critical action needed to combat organised crime during Election 2024 – GACC

Ghana’s stability and fledgling democracy could hit a snag if critical actions are not taken to end the scourge of organised crime, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has warned.

It said organised crimes such as drug peddling, money laundering, corruption and illegal mining continue to pose serious security threats, despite some appreciable efforts made to mitigate the incidence.

Madam Beauty Emefa Narteh, the Executive Secretary of GACC, said such nefarious activities usually peak in political seasons, during which some political actors funded their campaigns from questionable sources.

She has, thus, called on the public to rise up in arms against such crimes, particularly as the country gears up for the 2024 elections to safeguard Ghana’s security and democracy.

“Going into another national election on December 07, the signs are on the wall that the stakes will get even higher than in 2016 and 2020,” she said.

“Meaning, there is the likelihood of the political class overindulging in opulent spending and increasing the possibility of engaging persons involved in such serious crimes to support their campaigns.”

Narteh was speaking at a pre-election forum on Thursday, themed: “Safeguarding Ghana’s stability against serious Organised Crime threats,” which sought to empower the public to contribute to combating organised crime.

The forum was organised by the GACC in concert with the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Madam Narteh noted that elections in Ghana, since the restoration of democracy in 1992, had generally been considered free and fair by both domestic and international observers.

However, the electoral progress continued to be marred by allegations of abuse of office, misuse of state resources as well as instances of election-related corruption such as vote buying and violent confrontations, she noted.

Such cases of allegations, she said, often degenerated into conflicts and fatalities, a situation which played out in the 2020 elections, leading to five deaths on election day.

“This is why we need all and sundry to get involved in the crusade for an incident-free 2024 elections.”