A former Technical Advisor and National Co-ordinator of the Small Arms Commission, Nana Frema Busia, has urged the Government to investigate the circumstances under which the commission was closed down and her appointment terminated by the Kufuor administration.

At a press conference in Accra, Nana Frema Busia who is a daughter of former Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia, said the commission was established to mop up small arms in the country, which according to research, stood at 800,000 in 2007, but in 2008, she was locked out and hounded by national security operatives, until she fled the country for fear of her life.

She said at the time she fled the country, she had already implemented a $1 million programme on small arms, and was working on an approved $32 million European Union (EU) funded programme for small arms control in the West African sub-region.

She alleged that when she tried to fight for her office to be opened to enable her to continue her work, information was circulated by the national security apparatus that she was mentally deranged.

According to Ms Busia, herself, her mother and brother had near death experiences several times as a result of the threats on their lives and, unfortunately, her brother Nana Kwadwo Gyasi Busia, died as a result of the persecution.

 She said had she been allowed to implement the various programmes she was working on, the menace of armed robbery would have subsided.

“Today, our nation is held hostage by armed robbers, who engage the security services in hot-headed gun battles and our conflict communities continue raging, due in part to excessive availability of uncontrolled arms and perceived socio-political injustices,” she said.

“There are various neighbourhoods across the country that live in fear of armed robbers, following failed political leadership in small arms management and control by the Kufuor presidency,” she added.

Ms Busia said she had requested an insightful formal review of the issue by the National Security Co-ordinator, Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Francis Emile Short, and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu.

Quoting the words of her father, she said: “You who are young have the exciting chance to build a better society, to leave a better world than you found it,” adding that that was what she had sought to do and to make progress a sure thing for Ghana.

“I am swimming upstream in an unequivocal quest for a dignified, open and transparent justice. I am seeking that truth should be established and my dignity and honour restored,” she said.

She also called for all outstanding governmental financial obligations withheld from her as “a punitive measure for serving with integrity” to be restored to her.



Author  : Mark-Anthony Vinorkor