A retired police officer, Chief Superintendent Samson Addae Mensah, has blamed politicians for the recent rise in criminal activities in the country.

Rtd. Samson Addae Mensah said although it’s a known phenomenon that Kasoa is a hideout for most criminals, he admits that the level of criminal activities has increased in recent times.

In an interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Rtd. Samson Addae Mensah said, “It’s not a new phenomenon but of late the crimes have increased a lot. All is due to the way certain things are being handled.”

He added, “There are a lot of people who have been jailed but are walking [free] in town. I will blame the politicians [because] people go to jail then they are pardoned.”

According to him, despite the effort of Ghana Police Service to clamp down on criminals in the area, the actions of some politicians hinder their work.

Narrating an incident of how some robbers killed two fuel attendants about 10 years ago, the retired Chief Superintendent revealed that the said perpetrators of that dastardly act are walking freely in town without serving their jail term because a politician intervened for them.

“I can set an examples, at Papase number 2 there was a crime and people went to murder the fuel attendants, they were two girls. They were arrested but now they are in town,” the retired Chief Superintendent stated.

He went on to say, “They committed the crime in 2009 and were jailed in 2012 but now they are in town. I think they were given 25 years in jail, they didn’t serve the full term so government should be serious with that.”

On the recent ritual murder that was committed by two teenagers at Kasoa, Rtd. Samson Addae Mensah noted that the issue could have been different if fetish priests are banned from adverting their activities in public.

“I think there are a lot of billboards of mallams. They encourage them to do that because they will tell them to go and bring human parts and they will also do that. Before you erect a billboard you need a license, so who is in charge of that?” Rtd. Samson Addae Mensah who formerly served at Kasoa stated.