Sebastian R. Freiku
5 August 2008
Kumasi — PROFESSOR KENNETH Agyemang Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), has attributed the spate of armed robbery and increased crime, to the neglect of education of children by the state, and society in general.
This, he said, had contributed to their dropping out of schools, to the detriment of society as a whole, and making robbery attractive to the youth.
He noted that there had been substantive increases in robbery, because school dropouts see it as the fastest way of making money.
Prof. Attafuah has therefore suggested that teachers must be well-resourced and paid well, to enable them give hope and vision to the youth.
He noted that once they havd been well taken care of, teachers would have no excuse for not turning the fortunes of the pupils they teach.
He said a well-motivated teacher should be able to ensure that, at 25, a student might have been adequately prepared for life, and secured his first degree and on the road to success at 35, with the assurance that at 50, his life would be secured.
"By so doing, on no account would a child be motivated to venture into robbery, out of neglect by society, against the current situation, whereby most robberies are carried out by teenagers," he observed.
Prof. Attafuah, who was making remarks about his masterpiece of a book, FIGHTING ARMED ROBBERY IN GHANA, at the regional launch in Kumasi, also called for better resources for the police to deal with the situation.
The former Chief Investigator, at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), frowned on the habit of piling up the responsibility of policing on the police, saying the situation called for a greater citizen responsibility, instead of greater police numbers.
He said ineffective policing, coupled with providing attractive targets to robbers, had contributed to robbery, of which 7,471 cases had been reported to the Ghana Police, between 1997 and 2006, on which period the book focused.
He also mentioned women who provide various kinds of services to robbers, as an integral part of robbery, and called for measures to discourage their role.
According to the renowned criminologist, between 1972 and 1992, society was more interested in merely building homes, instead of building a nation.
Prof. Attafuah indicated hat the 332-page book, was the function of encouragement by friends and journalists, who demanded reasons for the increase in the spate of crimes, and the need to help society find practicable and workable solutions to armed robbery.
The Akyempimhene of Kumasi, Oheneba Adusei Poku, who launched the book, picked the first copy of the epic book for GH¢1,000, and described it as very educative.
He noted that armed robbery was a major problem confronting Ghanaians, for which reason every member of the public must get an antidote to the crisis, by getting a copy of the book.
Mrs. Gyikua Plange-Rhule, a medical practitioner, who reviewed the book chapter by chapter at the launching, described the book as well-researched and making great reading, which provided an incredible balance in the crusade against crime.
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