Gun for cash in Bawku is ideal - Bombande

A conflict management and resolution expert Emmanuel Bombande has backed government’s guns-for-cash policy in the conflict-prone area of Bawku in the Upper East region.

The indigenes of the municipality have until the next one month to voluntarily handover their weapons for fiscal reward. After the one-month amnesty period, recalcitrant ones face arrest and prosecution.

Sporadic gun violence has been recorded in Bawku recently claiming three lives with a few others hospitalised.

Bombande, who is the head of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), told Radio Ghana that although the plan is not aimed at bringing “lasting peace” to Bawku, it is a step in the right direction to reduce tension in the area.

He said it is “the guns that fuel the conflict in terms of its large scale capacity to destroy”, therefore, cutting down the numbers will reduce the sporadic violence.

“Shooting creates paralysis in the municipality. We should appreciate the initiative within the context of taking away that element, which exacerbates the violence that allows the people to live in fear [although] that does not end the conflict,” Bombande added.

Speaking on the same issue, the acting Executive Secretary of the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms, Jones Borteye Applerh, said his outfit is fully in support of the initiative.

He added: “Even if one [gun] is turned in then it means we have succeeded in reducing the number of guns by one.”