Ghana is now safe after a successful registration of almost 1,800 illicit weapons across the country, Minister of the Interior Prosper Bani has said.
“Today, I can say citizens of this country are safer by way of having 1,796 weapons being registered or re-registered. It means that the security agencies have a record of these legal firearms in circulation in this country,” Mr Bani said.
The Interior Minister has therefore indicated that “If the security agencies, after this amnesty, find any weapon in the possession of any individual not registered, they will face the full rigorous of the law.”
It is estimated that there are 2.3 million weapons in civilian hands in Ghana. However, only 1.2 million of them have been formalised.
The National Small Arms Commission (NSAC) in July this year, destroyed 1,300 illegal arms in the country.
It, however, warned that there were still more than 1.1 million of such firearms and light weapons that might be in wrong hands.