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Opinions of Sunday, 30 March 2008

Columnist: Amankwah, Nana Kofi

Some “419” Nigerian Criminals Have Patronized Ghana with Vengeance

Nananom, Ladies and Gentlemen the battle is now at hand for us to stand up and protect the image of our beloved country Ghana from the hands of these Nigerians sycophants, unscrupulous criminals who are now using our country as a safe haven for their nefarious activities.

These Nigerian criminals who have been patronizing Ghana due to the determination of the Nigerian government’s efforts to arrest these “419” criminals ;who use dubious tactics to steal bank accounts from innocent hardworking ordinary people and business people out of their country. This action has prompted many of these criminals now to settle in Ghana with their “419” business and bring disrepute to our nation’s good name. This drastic measure by the Nigerian government has forced many “419” criminals to move from Nigerian to Ghana and London. The government of Ghana and its security officials cannot sit quietly and act like they are not aware of what is happening in their backyard. Under all circumstances the police and other security agencies, news organization and radio stations should join forces to find these knucklehead criminals arrest and deport them to their native country. The question is, why the Ghanaian police department cannot work hand in hand in corroboration with the Nigerian government to hunt down these criminals and jail them for life,? instead of allowing these criminals to use our Land as their hideout? Recently, a diplomat from the Czech Republic was attacked with a machete in our nation’s capital. How is this incident going to reflect on our nation in the eyes of the world when we want people to come and invest their resource in our country.

The government wanted foreigners to come and do business to help our economy to secure employment for our youths, but they are now allowing these “419 criminals” to continue to live in our country. How is the nation going to achieve its investment goals? Based on credible information, these “ 419” criminals have established themselves in Ghana, in Greater Accra, at Adanta, Accra Newtown, West and North Legon, Dansuman, at Kumasi, Asafo, and Brong-Ahafo in Sunyani. Their presence will eventually create disastrous results for the local economy.

How long will the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Co allow these notorious criminals to destroyed our nation’s image before they begin taking actions or do something about it? However, taking drastic measures against these Nigerians who have engaged in these “419” criminal activities should never create any regional conflicts between Ghana and Nigerian. Their government know that these criminals are now using Ghana as a safe haven. The security agencies in Ghana should also acknowledge that they should not become a part of the “419” problems for the nation, but rather do their best to solve this criminal dilemma for our nation. The security officers should remember that every negative image represents the moral misrepresentation in minds of society. As a result of this, it is their constitutional obligation to protect the nation from these criminals, who have these motives to discredit our nation. Since last month a friend from Nigeria who works at the social service department sent a fax to my office with the copies of these “419” criminals using Ghanaian and Nigerian President’s letter heads. They are currently using these letters to deceive people in the financial capital at Wall Street and in London financial center. Upon receiving this information I informed the law enforcement agencies, to look into this “419” criminals fraudulent activities. I decided to investigate the meaning of “419” the figures “419”, which is a code of a paragraph in the Nigerian constitution, which stipulates that a man can always do what ever he or she wants. This is getting out of control, it’s time we all do our part to stop these criminal nonsense which is taken too long to stop it. As John F. Kennedy, United States former President once famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” We cannot sit by unconcerned and allow these criminals to do whatever they can to destroy our nation by their criminal deeds.

Nana Amankwha (New York)

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.