If we peruse our daily tabloids, turn on our Televisions and Radios; they are always reporting the flagitious activities of armed robbers. I am not referring to petty thieves-pocket pickers, yam, plantain or cassava thieves. I am referring to thieves who are often equipped with machine guns, semi-automatic weapons, bazookas, and rifles. They are well marshalled, often carry out their infamous activities with military precisions, can strike as lighting, and as deadly and destructive as molten magma.

It is my fervent hope that none of my dear ones, friends, minions, or even my enemies, ever fall a victim to these boisterous and homicidal scumbags. These armed robbers are brutal, heartless, vicious, and are scumbags of the highest order. If you happen to encounter these ‘homicidal brats, and fortunate enough to survive the ordeal, you will remain the luckiest person on the planet. In other words, an unfortunate encounter with these brats is simply the case of “a dead man walking”.

The activities of these scumbags know no bounds. These scumbags wickedly go about ‘denuding’ their victims of their hard-earned money and possessions, rape, maim, kill, and leaving their victims frightened for life. The activities of these scumbags do not end on the highways alone. They extend their activities to homes, banks, businesses, and market places. Therefore it is not surprising that after erecting beautiful houses, and installing doors and windows, you have to secure them with extra burglary iron proofs. In actual fact, people have become prisoners in their homes, mainly due to the activities of these homicidal hoodlums.

It is also true that our brothers and sisters who are plying their trades abroad are scared to visit home. Even if they do visit, they have to go about their activities with extreme cautiousness. Some of them do not even sleep in their luxurious homes, simply because, they fear of attacks by these scumbags. I am pretty sure many of our foreign based brothers and sisters have their own stories to share with us. Honestly, these hoodlums are discouraging potential investors from making any meaningful investments in the country.

We must not and cannot look on nonchalantly and give in to potential nation wreckers-armed robbers. I will urge all Ghanaians to endeavour to collaborate with the security forces to ‘fish out’ the dissolute criminals in our midst. I bet some citizens are harbouring these mountebanks-armed robbers. And, whatever the reasons may be, it is inconsequential for a true Ghanaian to shield an armed robber. Of course, whistle blowing is volitional, however, betraying these potential nation wreckers will go a long way to brighten a corner!

To the executive and the legislature: Promulgate laws to protect the law abiding citizens. We cannot sit idly and allow these scumbags to win the battle; bring back the capital punishment in armed robbery cases. We should not be sending them to prisons and feed them, only for them to come out and terrorise us more. Let them swallow their own bitter pills! Exterminate them!

More importantly, I do not think we should give in to Amnesty International, because they do not taste the insipid pills being given to us by the armed robbers. Hang them! Again, I would suggest that any enactment should make it unlawful for anyone to knowingly shield an armed robber; the comeuppance for such act should be extreme.

In default of appropriate measures to curb the praxes of armed robbers, it will go down as ignoble on the part of the executive and the legislature. Caveat: You are obliged to protect the citizens, denizens and potential investors, so, act now, because procrastination is not the solution to a potential problem!

K. Badu, UK.