THE GHANAIAN AUTHORITIES MUST BE MORE CREATIVE IN TACKLING VIOLENT FULANI CRIME ACROSS GHANA

The laws of Ghana require that both citizen and non-citizen resident alike, be law-abiding, at all material times. In safeguarding their basic human rights and all the other rights guaranteed Ghanaians under the 1992 constitution too, the law makes no distinction between citizens and non-citizen residents.

However, when a large number of adult males amongst a particular group of non-citizen residents gain notoriety nationwide, for lawlessness, special measures are called for - in order to safeguard the safety of the law-abiding in society.

Lt-Col Larry Dovlo Lartey is recently reported to have issued a warning to the inhabitants of Agogo, that Ghana's national security apparatus will not countenance the lawlessness, which taking the law into their own hands, in confronting the area's Fulani population, would amount to.

Of course he is right to caution the residents of Agogo not to take the law into their own hands - as that has terrible legal consequences, too.

However, it behoves those in charge of the safety of the Republic of Ghana and its citizens, to put the interests of law-abiding citizens above that of the criminal elements amongst members of a community, which unfortunately seems to breed an above-average number of violent criminals - who it would appear aren't afraid to use firearms: to rob, rape and kill without the slightest hesitation.

With respect, it is intolerable that foreigners in our midst can harass and murder law-abiding citizens across the country, with such arrogance and impunity.

(To save the image and good name of law-abiding Fulanis, perhaps the Chiefs and elders of all Fulani communities across Ghana, ought to think seriously, about providing regular information to the security agencies, about the activities of the criminals in their midst - so that whole communities aren't tarred with the same brush.)

One's humble advice to Lt-Col Larry Dovlo Lartey and the organisation he heads, is to be a tad more creative in this delicate matter. There is no question that the criminal elements within the Fulani communities across the country, are becoming a law unto themselves.

We cannot continue to allow them to rape our women folk with impunity, engage in violent armed robberies round the clock across our nation, destroy farms in the north, south, east and west of our country - and talk about the need for considering the consequences for Ghanaians residing in other West African nations, in tackling the criminality of Fulanis here effectively and with the required degree of ruthlessness, necessary, to deter them.

The first order of business in that creative new approach to tackling violent Fulani crime across our country, should be the despatch of official delegations by the Mills administration, to all the nations in the West African sub-region, which have indigenous Fulani populations.

Members of the delegations must brief the authorities in those nations about what is happening here - and to discuss in detail with them, the special measures Ghana intends to institute, to deal effectively with Fulani criminals in our midst.
The idea is to seek their blessing and full support for taking those special measures designed to control violent Fulani crime in Ghana.

Clearly, the actions of the criminal elements within Fulani communities nationwide, are creating a siege-mentality amongst their host communities. That is totally unacceptable in our peaceful, welcoming, non-discriminatory, free and liberal society.

Consequently, in exchange for their continued presence in the areas they reside, across the country, all male Fulanis above the age of maturity, must be required to register with the nearest police station in the areas they live - to be photographed, finger-printed, have their DNA samples taken and stored: for the creation of a national database for fighting the escalating Fulani criminality.

For those who will protest loudly and demand that that should not be permitted, because it will be an abuse of the human rights of Fulani males, let me humbly point it out to them too, that it is not only the human rights of the killers and rapists amongst Fulani communities in Ghana that must concern us.

The human rights of the victims of violent Fulani criminals across Ghana, ought to concern all of us too - and above all, those whose job it is to check Fulani criminality in our country, ought to always bear that in mind too.

In the meantime, one's humble advice to the residents of Agogo, and other areas where Fulani crime is a stubborn problem, is that they must exercise restraint - whiles those in charge of national security devise creative strategies to bring this menace to a cessation once and for all. A word to the wise...

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