Ghana should avoid complacency-WANEP

Mr. Justin Bayor, National Coordinator of the West Africa Network for Peace building, Ghana (WANEP-Ghana) has warned the country's security agencies not to let their guard down despite the Global Peace Index latest report which rated the nation as the world’s 42nd and Africa’s 3rd most peaceful country.

He maintained that the smuggling of small arms and ammunition into Ghana from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire should be a source of worry to all peace loving Ghanaians as we head into election 2012.

Justin Bayor was reacting to the Global Peace Index report and the Daily Graphic’s Friday August 19 edition which quoted a former NACOB Director, Mr. Kofi Bentum Quantson’s assertion that Ghana’s security agencies lacked the capacity to control the country’s “Porous borders.”

The WANEP National Coordinator cited the recent arrest of two suspected rebels from Cote d’Ivoire with weapons in Tamale and Bunkpurugu Yunyoo in the northern part of the country.

He bemoaned the increasing rate of political intolerance in Ghana ahead of the 2012 general elections and called on the leadership and supporters of the two main parties, NDC and NPP to be civil during their political discourse.

On the Libyan uprising, Mr. Justin Bayor advocated the use of diplomacy by NATO, the rebels and the pro-Ghaddafi forces to save the North African country from total collapse.

He warned that a spillover of the Libyan uprising could adversely affect many African countries.

The West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP) recently revealed that some weapons used during the Ivorian political turmoil have been smuggled into Ghana.

The organization expressed fear that such weapons were likely to be used during the 2012 general elections to cause mayhem in Ghana.

This was contained in the organization’s quarterly security briefing report for the year 2011 in which an appeal was made to the security agencies to conduct periodic community swoops to retrieve such weapons and ammunition from illegal possessors.