BOOK ON FIGHTING ROBBERY LAUNCHED (PAGE 3)

A book titled ‘Fighting Armed Robbery in Ghana’ and authored by Prof Ken A. Attafuah has been launched in Accra.
A Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, who launched the book, noted that delays in the criminal justice system had led to the creation of a vicious circle of armed robbery in the country.
He suggested the creation of special courts to deal with armed robbery and narcotic cases in the country, explaining that that would send a strong signal to armed robbers and drug barons that there was no longer a safe haven for them in this country and deter them to abandon their dangerous activities.
Justice Brobbey further observed that the delays were sometimes caused by the trial of mundane cases, such as those on divorce, in the same courts where armed robbery cases were being heard, resulting in adjournments and delay of cases which required expeditious action.
He said if the country had realised the need to establish commercial courts to deal exclusively with commercial cases, it was logical to establish special courts to tackle armed robbery which was threatening the socio-economic stability of the country.
The Supreme Court judge observed that because the criminal justice system was slow to deliver, the public had resorted to lynching people, a practice which, he said, did not augur well for the dispensation of justice in the country.
He said in the 1970s there was a robbery decree that clearly stated that the taking away of a person’s property by another person with force constituted armed robbery, adding that Ghanaians ought not wait until they had been attacked by weapons such as guns and machetes before calling the attack armed robbery.
Justice Brobbey said the legal system had effective laws, saying what was required was the establishment of special courts solely for armed robbers that could lead to the expeditious disposal of the back-log of armed robbery and narcotic cases.
Prof Attafuah, who gave an overview of the book, said one of the causes of armed robbery was the long periods of mismanagement of the country through inept and corrupt practices.
He said other factors also included disrespect for the rights of the people, especially the youth, who had to resort to armed robbery in order to attract attention to their plight.
Prof Attafuah said some youth became hardened criminals because of the single parent situation created in family circles where sometimes both parents left the country for greener pastures and left children in the hands of ageing grandparents who pampered the kids with the remittances received.
He said those remittances from abroad had also led to the springing up of uncompleted houses dotted all over the country which provided a save haven for criminals.
Prof Attafuah called for a human approach, such as the establishment of family welfare programmes to rehabilitate social miscreants, since capital punishment, which had been experimented in the country in the past, never succeeded in curbing the armed robbery menace.