Menace of narcotics and arms trafficking threaten country's democracy

Tema, Nov 27, GNA - Real Admiral Matthew Quashie, Chief of the Naval Staff, on Thursday observed that the nation's democratic gains and the goodwill it was enjoying on the international scene were being threatened by the menace of narcotics and arms trafficking.

He therefore charged the Navy, as a maritime force, to endeavour to guarantee the safety and security in the country's maritime domain, while protecting its coastline and offshore assets and resources. Real Admiral Quashie said this at an administrative inspection at the Naval Base in Tema.

The ceremonial parade was the first to be mounted by the Navy, in honour of Real Admiral Quashie, since he assumed office as the Chief of the Naval Staff.

It climaxed a three-day inspection of the Command, which is conducted every two years to assess the Command's operational efficiency and preparedness to deal with both routine and emergency situations. The Chief of the Naval Staff noted that with the recent discovery of oil offshore, and the prospects for the economic development of the country being very high, the Ghana Navy should be prepared to meet much tougher operational challenges in the years ahead.

He expressed appreciated to the personnel that in spite of the difficulties that the Ghana Navy had encountered in their efforts at combating "the perpetrators who use our country, and in particular, the maritime domain as a conduit to commit crimes," they had stayed focused. Real Admiral Quashie admitted that the lack of some essential equipment on our ships seriously hampered the Navy's ability to effectively discharge its duties.

He, however, assured the Command that government was aware of the challenges, and was doing all it could to resource the Navy, in order to put her in a much better position to maintain effective security in the nation's maritime area of responsibility. "My staff and I at the Headquarters will continue to pursue policies that will seek to improve on our performances and institutional image," he promised. Real Admiral said apart from increasing the manpower state of the Navy, his vision was to develop a highly motivated, well trained and a highly professional workforce.

He said as part of the Command's bid to improve the operational readiness and efficiency of our ships, strategies had been worked out to replace obsolete equipment and introduce new technology. The Chief of the Naval Staff commended the Command for the excellent traffic monitoring activities being undertaken by Navy personnel on duty on the Volta Lake.

He was particularly happy about the drastic reduction in accidents on the Lake since naval personnel were deployed on the lake three years ago, attested to the fact that given the necessary logistics support, the Navy could contribute immensely towards safety and security on the nation's inland water bodies.

After the establishment of the Ghana Navy in June 1959, it became necessary for the Navy to have other strategic operational bases to facilitate its operations, in accordance with Ghana's foreign policy on expansion of naval infrastructures. As a result, the Naval Base in Tema, was commissioned in 1963 to have oversight responsibility of the Eastern corridors of Ghana's territorial waters, which stretches from south of Winneba to Aflao.