Stop Contract Killings � MPs Tell Police

Members of Parliament have expressed grave concern over the recent spate of killings across the country, especially in the Greater Accra Region, and want the police to quickly unravel the circumstances surrounding such killings which most of the MPs consider as contract killings. The MPs also want the Ministry of Interior and the Inspector-General of Police to brief Parliament about measures being put in place to curb such violent killings. The MPs also called on the Ghana Police Service to focus more on community policing and intensify their night patrols in residential areas since the police have been provided with more vehicles for patrols. �To whom much is given much is expected and we therefore expect the police to intensify their patrols, especially in the Tema area where most of the killings have occurred as well as other areas of the Greater Accra region,� the MP for Nkoranza North, Major Derek Oduro (rtd) said. The MPs expressed concern after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu, had made a statement on the heartless killings of innocent people in recent times. She mentioned the killing of Fennec Okyere, who was killed in his Manet Gardens residence; the killing of a chief at Joma, near Ablekuma; the killing of a 55-year-old businessman in his car at Tema; the murder of a staff of the Akosombo branch of Zenith Bank and two employees of Stanbic Bank and Fidelity Bank. She called on the police to educate members of the public on such criminal activities and publicise their emergency numbers so that members of the public could easily call the police in such situations. �We want quick action from the police when such incidents are reported to them,� she said. The Ablekuma West MP also suggested that neighbourhood watchdog committees should be encouraged in residential areas, especially those occupied by affluent people. The NPP MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, said the police must take the initiative to collect all unregistered firearms in possession of criminal gangs as a way of curbing deadly attacks on innocent citizens by members of criminal gangs. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Garu, Dominic Azumah, said he had witnessed at least two MPs who had been attacked in their homes recently and therefore wanted the State to provide security for lawmakers. �MPs are being seen as rich people so gangsters have started targetting MPs for attacks in order to rob them of their valuables,� he said, arguing that if members of the executive are provided with security, what stops the State to provide similar security to Members of Parliament? The MPs unanimously agreed that they ought to be provided with security because of the nature of their work and also about the fact that they are always interacting with members of the public and their constituents. The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebo Barton-Odro, who was presiding at the time, directed the Minister of Interior to appear before the House and brief Members on what steps the Ministry was taking to avert such heartless killings of innocent Ghanaians.