SAC steps up moves to rid Ghana of illicit arms

The Small Arms Commission has said it is stepping up efforts to rid the country of arms ahead of the November polls.

With fears of instability due to the high stakes in the 2016 elections and the recent seizures of large arms and ammunition, Executive Secretary of the Commission, Jones Aplerh told Class News the commission would embark on a massive education drive to rid the system of such weapons.

“What we are doing in the circumstance is to step up intelligence and there are various forms and various strategies used in mopping up weapons that are in excess in society,” he said.

“We have various measures, like what we all know the public education where you engage in very active public education and sensitisation for people to turn in their weapons sometimes for cash, sometimes for development, and sometimes people just return their weapons because they think that they do not want them anymore.

“We have increased our intelligence in terms of information gathering and knowing who is bringing what, as a result of which you have seen a lot of arrests in Kumasi and other places.”

An Act of Parliament, Act 736 of the Republic of Ghana, established the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons [NACSA] as a government agency under the Ministry for the Interior.

The objective of the Commission, among others, is to deal with matters relating to small arms and light weapons and other related matters. The Commission is mandated to set in place programmes of action to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.