IS MY SAFETY GUARANTEED, IF I SAY WHAT I SEE?

Recently, social vices have been on the rise in the country with the two most dominant being armed robbery and kidnapping. There is no doubt that kidnapping has been at its peak since 2018. There have been series of kidnapping and the two most popular cases were the Takoradi missing girls and the two kidnapped Canadian women. All these vices continue to increase anxiety among citizens. 

Some Government and Non-governmental organizations such as the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) have championed the cause of sensitization campaigns on kidnapping in the country.  Media outlets like the Multimedia Group also joined in campaigning for the release of the three Takoradi girls which was labelled, “# Bring back our Taadi girls”. 

Another important campaign which was launched was the “See something say something” campaign. It was a collaboration between BrassRing Media Network, Youth Crime watch of Ghana, Ignitus worldwide Inc.Gh and the Ghana police service. The campaign seeks to encourage citizens to be more vigilant on crimes and report what they see to the right authorities.All these efforts are aimed at reducing the high rate of kidnapping and other social vices.

Unfortunately, some of these criminals who have been reported by citizens are later released on bail. An instance  was the ¢800,000 bail, granted to the four persons who were accused of kidnapping the two Canadian women in Kumasi. When instances of this sort happen, some of these criminals go hunting for the people who tipped the police about their criminal acts. And if they succeed in finding them, they  threaten or harm them.  Joy FM recently reported on how a whistleblower is being threatened by a gang who indulge in illegal arms proliferation, after one of the gang leaders was granted a bail of ¢23,000. The whistleblower is currently in hiding with his wife and six month old baby due to the numerous threats on their lives.

Due to some of these insecurities, citizens may be reluctant to say something even if it happened right before their eyes. For fear that, if these criminals are arrested, they will later be granted bail and their lives would be at risk. 

In order to erase this fear in citizens, the police service should devise means of protecting people who report on crimes they have seen or observed. Only then will citizens be more willing to contribute to curbing these crimes.

#Myperspective