Trigger-happy Ghanaian police warned

The Ghanaian police authorities are taking steps to restrict the issue of firearms to policemen, and will prosecute officers who have used arms wrongly and harmed members of the public, Ghanaian radio said on Tuesday.

Henceforth, arms will be issued only to personnel who genuinely require them, while those "whose unlawful and unjustifiable use of arms has caused harm to members of the public" will be prosecuted, to serve as a deterrent to others.

The inspector general of police, Peter Nanfuri, told a gathering of chief inspectors in Kumasi that recent instances where some policemen "resorted to the use of rifle fire at the least provocation, and under completely unwarranted circumstances" gave the police a bad image, the radio said.

Their image was being further dented by "acts of bribery and corruption and interference in disputes," the radio quoted Nanfuri as saying.

He also cautioned the police "to be very cautious when controlling riotous mobs, and demonstrations", and warned that he would deal "ruthlessly" with policemen who set up unauthorized roadblocks.

He called on police to cultivate the friendship of the public, so that they would be disposed to volunteer information to them.

He also urged local chiefs and religious leaders to liaise with the police to form neighbourhood watch groups to combat crime.

Issues like child abuse, girl-child education, family planning, environmental degradation, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy should also be of concern to the police, he said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.