Don’t blame recent rates of robbery on economic hardship – Security Analyst

The Executive Director of the Global Intelligence and Security Analysis Center (GISAC), Samuel Nana Appiah Owusu, says it will be an unfair judgement to blame the alarming rates of robbery in the country on the economic hardship experienced recently.

The Security Analyst shared that he has observed some people attribute the increase in robbery cases to unemployment in the country. He, however, believes that such reasoning is flawed.

According to him, people engage in criminal activities because they choose to and not because times are hard.

Speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he shared: “We cannot conclude these robberies are as a result of hardships in the system. I have read a lot of people making inferences and all of that. Global situations as of now are very dicey and disheartening. In fact, countries that were high on development, as we speak, are crying. So, hardships are everywhere because of the pandemic. The covid 19 has even exacerbated the situation.

But what we must know is that the situation does not necessarily breed criminals but criminals breed themselves. They take it as a profession, hobby and learn, practice and live it so it becomes their routine system of work to get money”.

Samuel Owusu added that there exists a whole lot of job opportunities. However, the youth in the country choose to ignore these opportunities while resorting to the get-rich-quick schemes such as armed robbery.

“It is not specifically about the hard economy but they [youth] would not want to learn a trade. Who has stopped people from learning carpentry and masonry in Ghana? Who has stopped people from commercial farming irrespective of the size? There are a lot of professions people can engage in but these people go and learn how to shoot”, he said.

Armed robbers shot to death, a police officer and an eyewitness, during a robbery incident involving a bullion van at Adedenkpo, a suburb of James Town in Accra, Monday.

According to another eyewitness, the police officer was providing security to the van while the young lady was a bystander who witnessed the incident.

The driver of the van also sustained severe injuries and is receiving treatment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The dead have been taken to the Police Hospital for preservation and autopsy.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), has directed the Director-General, Criminal Investigation Department to take over investigations into circumstances leading to the killing of a police officer and a bystander during the attack.