A security expert, Dr Jones Opoku Ware has warned that the Kasoa area in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region, is like a powder keg waiting to explode, as it harbours a criminal subculture that has the potential to undermine public safety.
Dr Jones Opoku Ware is asking authorities to take swift and decisive action before the situation spirals out of control.
His comments come in the wake of a tragic incident involving a military officer, L/Cpl. Danso Michael who was recently killed reportedly over a land dispute incident at Millennium City, Kasoa.
The only suspect arrested so far has been identified as Benlord Ababio, and he’s believed to be a landguard.
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM show on May 6, 2024, he stated that “Kasoa is a place like a time bomb waiting to explode because this is an area where the characteristics as we have it have created the criminal subculture.
“There are even places in the area where people dare not pass there at certain times of the day. We have certain elements and gangs who have declared certain portions of these places unto themselves, and there are areas where they forbid people to use those places because they think they have the power to control those areas.
“When you have a subculture that has been built within a period in certain areas, it sends a certain psychological effect into the minds of the people that for these areas we are on our own and we have no protection, and that is what we have manifested in the Kasoa area,”he said.
Dr Opoku Ware pointed to his research on crimes in Kasoa between 2017 and 2022, which revealed that land guards commonly sell parcels of land to multiple individuals, resulting in violent confrontations over ownership.
He also accused local police of being aware of these unscrupulous sale practices and yet failing to take preventive measures to ensure public safety and deter further conflicts, thereby exacerbating the situation.
“Because look, if you look at the crime statistics, though, as a criminologist, I do not rely solely on crime statistics because of what we call the dark figure, I think that the patterns as demonstrated by the police data itself should send shivers down the spines of every security agency operating within that firm.
“This is not something that we have to just sit on. The guy who has been arrested for having committed the crime, I am sure that the people in the area know him.
“I am sure his activity is known to people within the area, so why is it that the police over the period have not gone in for this guy for them to wait for somebody to be murdered, then say we have moved in, and we have the security operating with that kind of system? It creates a problem for everybody, and that is what we have to look at,” he noted.
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