Ghana:Guerrilla Training Camp Is a Threat To the Whole Nation-WANEP

Following the successful free and fair elections on five consecutive times since 1992, Ghana has been rated as one of the peaceful countries in Africa. This achievement has won for us much international recognition such that, the first Black-American president, chose to visit Ghana on his first trip in Africa. However, if care is not taken and we allow complacency to ride over how peaceful Ghana is, our story might not be different from our neighboring countries like Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria who have had their fair share of civil wars. Some security experts have said that even though civil war in Ghana seems a far off thing, reports of a guerrilla training in Bawku recently, sent shivers down the spines of most people. But what does this bode for the security of the nation, if these reports are true? PEACEFM sought the views of Mr. Emmanuel Bombande, the Executive Director of the West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP), who opined that, the existence of the guerrilla training camp, is a threat to the whole nation, and not only to the people of Bawku. Mr. Bombande also called for media circumspection in reporting the issue of the guerrilla training base. “How it’s reported is also important. We should ensure that any reportage (on the training camp) does not deteriorate the situation between the Kusasis and the Mamprusis...We can report about the camp but it should not be ethnicized,” he cautioned. Mr. Bombande also called for the total dismantling of the guerrilla training camp, if indeed any such camp exists and the suppression of any resistance to the dismantling exercise. “If it is proven that such a camp exists, the security agencies must move in with all the necessary force and dismantle it and should there be any resistance…the security should overwhelm that resistance…since they cannot be a law unto themselves,” he stressed. Source: Maame Efua Koomson/peacefmonline