Security analyst, Adib Saani, has condemned attack on security personnel in Garu, in the Upper East region, revealing that the proliferation of small arms in the region has emboldened the youth to attack these personnel.
According to him, lot of such attacks has to do with impunity, and it looks like the government and other stakeholders have given up on Bawku and its environs.
To this end, he noted that when such attacks and killings happen, nobody is held to account because the area somewhat is vast which emboldens the people to stage all manner of attacks.
Mr Saani indicated that although the national security personnel who were attacked by the group identified themselves as security agents, the youth still resolved to attack them.
He explained that videos available to him reveals a very bad situation in which shots were fired directly into the police station to kill.
“Those are the videos I’ve seen – these were not warning shots, or shots fired into the sky, they were fired directly into the police station… Nobody knows where they have gone to… Issue of proliferation of small arms and live weapons gives them that sense of invincibility; that Rambo feeling that makes them think they can confront even the military head-on and wouldn’t fear anything. In some cases, they have more potent rifles than even that of the security agents…”
Adib Saani
Furthermore, Mr Saani agreed that the level of proliferation of small arms and live weapons, especially military grade rifles in the area are quite worrying. In some cases, he stated that weapons civilians wield is “even more potent than that of the military”.
“I’m not in any way justifying the use of violence against civilians by security services, but there has been a consistent pattern of violence that included death of security service agents perpetrated by civilians…
“Other attacks against military, police personnel, and even personnel from the intelligence agency have been well-documented and it is perpetrated by certain motivated individuals on the ground who feel they have more fire power and I think it is something we need to start talking about and to see how we can progressively harness the relationship between the people and the security services.”
Adib Saani
To address the growing proliferation of arms in the country, Mr Saani stated that going forward, there is the need for government to do more. He explained that he has always indicated that the situation is an opportunity to use the Small Arms Commission to stop these weapons from coming into the country.
“Our actions have been superficial. What we do is swoops – the military goes in ceasing weapons, but the following week, more would come in. So, until we make that deliberate conscious attempt to prevent these weapons from coming in, we would always go for the swoops and the weapons will keep coming.”
Adib Saani
Violent triggers in Garu
Commenting on what could have triggered the incident, as there have been occasions where groups created by feuding factions stoke these tensions, Mr Saani explained that there’s a bit of a gap and a disconnect between state security and the people.
He noted that this is further exacerbated by the state of misinformation and disinformation that is coming up from the area.
“Look, on one Facebook page belonging to the two sides of the conflict, where pictures of certain individuals are posted and threats made to the effect that ‘we know who you are, we have your picture, and we are going to come after you’, believe it or not, such people are in the end killed.
“In some cases, there are some individuals on the ground who are able to disseminate false information about the movement of certain persons they believe they think are working closely with the other side, and within minutes, they are able to galvanize people to engage in some of these acts of lawlessness.”
Adib Saani
Following the attack on security personnel in Garu, the Ministry of National Security and the Ghana Armed Forces, on Saturday, October 28, 2023, conducted a joint operation in Garu to seize weapons used by the perpetrators of the attack on the National Security personnel.
Reacting to this, Mr Saani stated that these acts of violence perpetrated by the armed youth is not only against the security services. In some cases, he noted that it’s against their own people.
However, he highlighted that the attack on male residents in Garu by the military is not justified.
“I always say that these security officers we see there, most of them are not from that areas but they are there to ensure your safety and government spends a whole lot of money that could have been used to develop the area and create jobs for their people. But because people are hellbent on killing people, we have these officers come in to stop them. So, now if you’re attacking them, it creates a very difficult situation for them. But that notwithstanding, violence against innocent people is not the answer.”
Adib Saani
