NDC Fights Customs …Over 436 Pistols Imported From Turkey

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) wants the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) unit at the Tema Harbour to reveal the faces behind the consignment of some 436 pistols and ammunition allegedly imported illegally into Ghana from Turkey.

Reports say the pistols and ammunition which had been concealed in a consignment of personal effects from Turkey were found during physical examination by Custom Officials at the Port and taken to the Tema Habour Police station.

This comes barely four days after the Party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia alleged that the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is distributing over 4,000 weapons from the state armoury to some vigilante groups associated with the incumbent NPP.

According to him, the move is part of the many ploys the incumbent NPP is taking to disrupt the December 7 elections.

“We are aware that the government is distributing more than 4,000 weapons from the state armoury to his vigilantes. I am telling you, I’m not afraid…when they ask you, mention my name; they should come and ask me…,” Asiedu Nketia said in an interview aired on Adom TV, on October 9, 2020.

He said, “I have the registered numbers of all these weapons” adding that “I can only talk about it in the media and that is what I’m doing or do you expect me to go and buy some of the weapons or fight […] the government to take those weapons from [them].”

Although, there are currently no visible linkage of the NPP to the alleged importation of the weapons, the NDC is mounting pressure on Customs to reveal those it describes as the “Big Men” behind the importation of the guns.

The NDC in a statement signed by its National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, said “More importantly, Ghanaians deserve to know the identity of the so-called “Big Men” who are pulling strings behind the scenes to get the consignment released.

It claimed: “We are informed that the weapons have been taken back to the Ghana Revenue Authority’s Long Room Armoury at the Tema Port. We have picked intel that some unscrupulous persons are trying to get the weapons released.”

The statement further noted” “While we commend the Customs Excise and Preventive Service unit at Tema port for acting swiftly to impound this consignment, we demand that they update the nation on this worrying development in the spirit of transparency.”

The NDC’s National Communication Officer indicated that given the danger that these weapons can pose to the security of the nation in the wrong hands, “we humbly appeal to the media to follow this story closely. We are watching!”

The National Small Arms Commission (NSAC) in 2016 warned that there were more than 1.1 million of firearms and light weapons that might be in wrong hands.

The number of illegal firearms in wrong hands means that for Ghana’s 27 million population, the ratio of illegal arms to the population is 1:25.

It is estimated that there are 2.3 million weapons in civilian hands in Ghana, with only 1.2 million of that number having been registered.