There are disturbing reports of security guards and other persons getting killed or missing in Wa, the capital of the Upper West Region.
The reports say so far the number of missing persons in Wa are about 10 and while some of them have been found dead, others are yet to be found.
The situation has forced the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo-Dampare, to visit Wa to get a first-hand update on the incidents, particularly the deaths of the private security officers.
For instance, on Friday, the Upper West Regional Police Command exhumed the body of a private security guard (watchman), who went missing the previous day.
He is believed to be the seventh person to be killed in the Wa Municipality and surrounding communities so far.
A police statement yesterday said a suspect, Kankani Adongo, had been arrested at Bamahu, a suburb of Wa following extensive collaboration between the police and community search parties.
Adongo is in police custody and will be arraigned to face justice, while investigations continue.
It is very worrying that some criminal elements have made certain communities in the country hotspots of crime and unattractive to others to want to visit, live or invest there.
Wa is one place in the country that must not be allowed to be classified as one such place because it is a potential place for large-scale socio-economic activities,
The collaboration of communities in the Wa municipality with the police to arrest suspect Adongo and ready to help in getting others arrested is a clear sign that the people abhor crime and so would not harbor its perpetrators.
The truth, however, is that the people’s effort would come to naught if they do not get the police and the justice system motivating them to be vigilant and ready to ward off crime.
They should keep to the line they have toed by way of not taking the law into their own hands but assisting the police to perform their lawful duty by ensuring law and order in the Wa area.
It is curious that the Ghana Police Service has been adopting internal best practices to fight crime yet criminals keep increasing their activities.
For instance, hotspots policing is being adopted to prevent crime.
The strategy focuses on small geographic areas or places, usually in urban settings where crime is concentrated.
Today, police stations and posts, as well as the presence of the police themselves are more visible across the country now than ever before.
It is intriguing that when police visibility increases as in hotspots policing crime still grows.
This is proven even in the US.
If so, then the Ghanaian Times would like to appeal to the Ghana Police Service to not rely on only international practices that seem to have failed even the originators, but also strive to intensely look within and come up with local solutions.
Besides, the political establishment and the Judiciary should help to tame the sources of crime such as superstition or religion, unemployment, economic inequalities and issues of justice delivery.
This is because disturbances anywhere in the country affect everywhere of it.
