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Book
on “Fighting Armed Robbery in Ghana” launched in Kumasi
Kumasi, Aug 4, Ghanadot/GNA- Professor Kenneth Agyemang
Attafuah’s book entitled “Fighting Armed Robbery in Ghana”,
was launched in Kumasi on Friday.
The 332-page literary work by the Ghanaian legal
practitioner and criminologist, who is also the Secretary of
National Identification Authority, was aimed at helping
combat the rise in armed robbery in the country.
Prof. Attafuah explained that armed robbery, a real menace
in the Ghanaian society occur whenever force is applied in
stealing from a person using machetes, guns and dangerous
weapons.
He said the book enumerated three reasons for crime as: when
there is a motivated offender, when there are people who are
attractive targets and when there is limited or absence of
capable guardianship.
Prof. Attafuah also said that the book attributed armed
robbery to economic inequality, deviance, unplanned urban
development where wayward youth hide in ghettos and
uncompleted buildings.
He said the literary work also identifies little education
and the lack of vocational skills as well as unemployment as
some of the causes of armed robbery in the society.
Prof. Attafuah said ‘The young ones whose parents left for
abroad to seek greener pastures and the ones branded as not
very good in school or drop outs, are now the armed gangs
who engaged in robbery”.
The book educates readers on what to do when some one falls
a victim to armed robbery, the Author said.
Prof. Attafuah called on government to deal with armed
robbery by paying workers well, setting good priorities and
focusing on education, and making sure that children stay in
school.
Dr. Mrs. Gykua Plange Rhule, a Paediatrician Consultant at
the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), in a brief review
of the book said it is a “must-read book” since it addresses
the issue of armed robbery to which all and sundry are
vulnerable Mr. Anthony Kwadwo Yeboah, a legal
practitioner, also said the book talks against instant
justice and mob justice against armed robbers, adding that
they also have fundamental human rights just as any law
abiding citizen, and these rights he noted should be
protected.
He described lynching of robbers as gruesome, adding that as
much as the public sympathizes with victims of armed
robbery, they are equally entitled to have their fundamental
human rights respected and protected.
Oheneba Adusei Poku, Akyimpemhene of Kumasi, who launched
the book, said armed robbery was a problem that confronts
all Ghanaians, and commended the author for coming out with
the literary work to help fight the phenomenon.
He called on the public to help the security agencies to
fight the armed robbery to ensure sanity in the country.
The first book was auctioned as GH¢100.
GNA
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