The former Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashitey, has been honoured Forensic Ambassador for his contribution towards the promotion of forensic services in the country.
The honorary title was conferred on him by Forensic Guards Nigeria (FGN) in partnership with African Sporting Initiative during the second international seminar organised by FGN in Accra last Friday.
The seminar, which was on the theme ; “The role of forensic ambassadors in sustenance of criminal justice system in Africa,” aimed to sensitise, educate and train Africans on the use of forensic tools to comprehend the criminal justice system in Africa.
Speaking at the seminar, the Executive Secretary of FGN, Mr Abraham Kwaghfan, said the award was to recognise the effort of the legal practitioner for his role and keen interest in criminal justice.
He said criminal justice had suffered a lot of setbacks in Africa due to a lot of factors militating against it.
He said some of the factors, such as lack of forensic training for judicial officials, laboratory equipment, finance, corruption among others, were due to negligence while some were as a result of ignorance from officials saddled with responsibilities.
Mr Kwaghfan said he believed the honour bestowed on the trade unionist would help government officials to sensitise, educate and train judicial officials to improve the quality of justice system forensically.
“It is time for us to join forces together for the purpose of curbing the menace of insecurity, criminality, cyber crime and other social vices through forensic,” he added.
He reminded African leaders that it was cheaper to train and empower the youth positively than to buy arms and ammunition for them to fight in wars.
Mr Ashitey expressed his full support for the need for forensic investigation which would aid the criminal justice system in Ghana and Africa to mitigate the rate of wrongful and vindictive prosecutions, while pointing more effectively to the true perpetrators of crime and bringing them to justice.
He thanked FGN for the honour done him and promised to promote and advocate the need to apply forensic science in the execution of both criminal and civilian laws in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
“I am very honoured by the recognition accorded me and pledge my commitment to continue working with FGN to advocate and mobilise resource towards the establishment of efficient and robust Forensic Investigation Units in Ghana and across Africa,” he added.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
