Story: Mary Mensah
THE Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIGP) of the Ghana Police Service, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, took over yesterday as acting IGP.
The outgoing IGP, Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, begins his official terminal leave prior to retirement and his deputy has been directed by President John Dramani Mahama to act until further notice.
Mr Alhassan was enlisted into the Service in 1979 as a Chief Inspector of Police, graduating from the Police College in 1980 as Assistant Superintendent of Police, with honours.
He has held many command appointments nationally and internationally. He has served as a career officer in all command levels from the field to the headquarters.
He has served as a staff instructor at the Police College, district commander, divisional commander and regional police commander in various parts of the country and before his appointment as DIGP, Mr Alhassan was the Director-General of Administration at the Police Headquarters.
He was once the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Police Operations at the Police Headquarters in 2003, having earlier served at the same place as Assistant Staff Officer to the IGP between 1981 and 1984 on two occasions.
His contribution to the development of the service includes a wide range of law enforcement advice, guidance, direction, as well as reforms and restructuring initiatives to the service and various national law enforcement agencies across the world.
He is widely credited with the introduction of neighbourhood watch policing (Community Policing) in Ghana in 1984, while as a district officer, the tent city policing concept in Tema as Regional Commander and the establishment of the Highway Patrol Unit at the Police HQ as the Deputy Commissioner Operations, as part of innovations to make the police more proactive, visible, accessible and responsive to community needs and crime trend in the country.
His initiative, good operational planning and innovation significantly contributed to the widely applauded police professional feats and crowd management standards achieved in recent high-profile public events in the country.
His international appointments and contributions have included various appointments with the United Nations and other international organisations.
He was appointed Interim United Nations Police Advisor to the UN Secretary-General at the UNHQ, New York in 2007, having been earlier appointed UN Police Commissioner for UN Mission in Liberia in 2005.
Between 1999 and 2003, Mr M. A. Alhassan was appointed Desk Officer at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, responsible for Mission Management in Europe, Latin America and the Middle-East.
He also served as Station and District commander with the UN Mission in Namibia ( UNTAG) and International Police Task Force (IPTF) Weapon Instructor in Bosnia Herzegovina.
He has extensive legacies in the UN circles including the present reforms and restructuring initiatives of the Liberian National Police Education.
He successfully completed studies in National and International Security from the John Kennedy School, Harvard University, Boston USA.
He holds an MSc degree in Police Administration and Criminology from the University of Cardiff, UK and a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon.
He has attended numerous management and leadership training programmes across the world as a resource person.
Between 1987 and 1999, he was a lecturer at the University of Ghana (Police Administration).
The acting IGP has made extensive presentations and research and write-up contributions to national and international seminars/workshops on varied policing areas including Ghana Police: Forces of Order; Community Policing in Ghana; Internal Crisis Management, Ghana Police Service Roles, Capabilities and Limitations, the Role of the United Nations Civilian Police in UN Peacekeeping Operations; Policing Election - Election Security, and many others.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Human Rights Activists
A HUMAN rights activist has dragged former President John Agyekum Kufour, President Yahaya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh of Gambia and the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the International Criminal Court.
According to the activist, the three men failed to act appropriately in the gruesome murder of 72 Ghanaians and eight Nigerians in the Gambia on July 22, 2005.
Mr Anthony Kwabena Abrebrese Rau, a Ghanaian resident in Humburg, Germany, indicated that he had evidence to prove that President Jammeh intensionally ordered the murder of the stowaways.
He said Mr Kufour, who was the president at the time, intentionally failed to have his Attorney General take immediate legal action against Mr Jammeh.
At a press briefing in Accra yesterday, Mr Rau said he had an eye witness who claimed that when Mr Kufour sent his then Foreign Minister, Nana Akufo-Addo, to meet Mr Jammeh to ascertain the facts about the incident, Mr Jammeh refused to meet him but rather told him that he was not prepared to meet any minister except President Kufour himself.
He said in this case, President Kufour should have taken international legal action against Mr Jammeh and he strongly believed that Mr Kufour misused his power to cover Mr Jammeh.
“Nana Akufo-Addo was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from April 2003-2007 and if his boss failed to work, he should have resigned and made a case against the Gambian President, Mr Jammeh. I suspect Nana Akufo-Addo also covered the others, which was a crime against the international human rights act,” he said.
He said under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings were born free and equal in dignity and rights and they were endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
He added that everyone had the right to effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Mr Rau asserted that on June 8, 2011 he received a whole evidence which he thinks was good for prosecution and called on the International Criminal Court to use their good offices to prosecute the three men with the international law of crime.
“The one who gave me this information said it was not true that 44 Ghanaians were murdered in the Gambia, but rather 72 Ghanaians and eight Nigerians. He also alleged that the bodies which the present government requested from the Gambian some months ago and were buried in Ghana were not the rightful dead bodies.
My witness is prepared to show the International Criminal Court where the real bodies were buried,” he said.
According to the activist, the three men failed to act appropriately in the gruesome murder of 72 Ghanaians and eight Nigerians in the Gambia on July 22, 2005.
Mr Anthony Kwabena Abrebrese Rau, a Ghanaian resident in Humburg, Germany, indicated that he had evidence to prove that President Jammeh intensionally ordered the murder of the stowaways.
He said Mr Kufour, who was the president at the time, intentionally failed to have his Attorney General take immediate legal action against Mr Jammeh.
At a press briefing in Accra yesterday, Mr Rau said he had an eye witness who claimed that when Mr Kufour sent his then Foreign Minister, Nana Akufo-Addo, to meet Mr Jammeh to ascertain the facts about the incident, Mr Jammeh refused to meet him but rather told him that he was not prepared to meet any minister except President Kufour himself.
He said in this case, President Kufour should have taken international legal action against Mr Jammeh and he strongly believed that Mr Kufour misused his power to cover Mr Jammeh.
“Nana Akufo-Addo was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from April 2003-2007 and if his boss failed to work, he should have resigned and made a case against the Gambian President, Mr Jammeh. I suspect Nana Akufo-Addo also covered the others, which was a crime against the international human rights act,” he said.
He said under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings were born free and equal in dignity and rights and they were endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
He added that everyone had the right to effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Mr Rau asserted that on June 8, 2011 he received a whole evidence which he thinks was good for prosecution and called on the International Criminal Court to use their good offices to prosecute the three men with the international law of crime.
“The one who gave me this information said it was not true that 44 Ghanaians were murdered in the Gambia, but rather 72 Ghanaians and eight Nigerians. He also alleged that the bodies which the present government requested from the Gambian some months ago and were buried in Ghana were not the rightful dead bodies.
My witness is prepared to show the International Criminal Court where the real bodies were buried,” he said.
A National Integrated Programme Developed
A NATIONAL integrated programme has been developed by the government to tackle drug trafficking and its related problems in the country.
The programme, developed in co-operation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, is meant to improve the ability of the country to respond appropriately to drug trafficking.
The Vice-President, Mr Akwesi Amissah-Arthur, announced this at the inauguration of the West African Commission on the Impact of Drug Trafficking on Governance, Security and Development in Accra yesterday.
The high-powered commission was convened by Mr Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN).
The commission is under the chairmanship of the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and members include distinguished leaders and individuals in West Africa including President Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde.
Mr Amissah Arthur said the value of the drug trade was a significant proportion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, therefore, had the ability to undermine national institutions, as the profit from the drug trade could fund and corrupt national institutions and subordinate them to the will of the traffickers.
He added that drug trafficking was, therefore, a threat to the well being, security and stability of nations.
It was in view of that the government would continue to collaborate with ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the UN to find a lasting solution to the problem, he said.
Mr Amissah Arthur said there was the need for countries to work closely with drug producer and consumer regions for the world to deal effectively with drug trafficking.
He underscored the need for the acquisition of accurate information on drugs, adding, ”we must make every effort to ensure that our youth are given the kind of help that reduces their vulnerability to drug pushers and diminish the risks they run in using drugs.”
He added that the government welcomed the initiative, which was taken by Mr Kofi Annan to raise awareness of the negative impact of drug trafficking in the sub-region.
He said the initiative had come at a crucial time when the countries in the sub-region were facing the threat of sustained instability due to the destructive activities and corrupting influence of drug traffickers.
For his part, Mr Kofi Annan said the massive surge in drug trafficking over the last decade presented a serious and growing threat to the region’s stability and development.
“Left unchecked, illegal drug trafficking could compromise the encouraging progress that West African nations have made in strengthening democracy and promoting human and economic development,” he added.
Former President Obasanjo said the illegal trade in drugs could cause political instability and social upheavals.
“The trade in illegal drugs has already caused devastation in other regions of the world. We must all work to prevent West Africa from experiencing the same fate. The commission looks forward to its urgent and important work,” he said.
The commission, which will publish a comprehensive report later this year, aims at developing evidence-based policy recommendations for political and civil society leaders to address drug trafficking; creating public awareness and ensuring political commitment to the issue, and promoting local and regional capacities to deal with drug trafficking.
The programme, developed in co-operation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, is meant to improve the ability of the country to respond appropriately to drug trafficking.
The Vice-President, Mr Akwesi Amissah-Arthur, announced this at the inauguration of the West African Commission on the Impact of Drug Trafficking on Governance, Security and Development in Accra yesterday.
The high-powered commission was convened by Mr Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN).
The commission is under the chairmanship of the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and members include distinguished leaders and individuals in West Africa including President Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde.
Mr Amissah Arthur said the value of the drug trade was a significant proportion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, therefore, had the ability to undermine national institutions, as the profit from the drug trade could fund and corrupt national institutions and subordinate them to the will of the traffickers.
He added that drug trafficking was, therefore, a threat to the well being, security and stability of nations.
It was in view of that the government would continue to collaborate with ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the UN to find a lasting solution to the problem, he said.
Mr Amissah Arthur said there was the need for countries to work closely with drug producer and consumer regions for the world to deal effectively with drug trafficking.
He underscored the need for the acquisition of accurate information on drugs, adding, ”we must make every effort to ensure that our youth are given the kind of help that reduces their vulnerability to drug pushers and diminish the risks they run in using drugs.”
He added that the government welcomed the initiative, which was taken by Mr Kofi Annan to raise awareness of the negative impact of drug trafficking in the sub-region.
He said the initiative had come at a crucial time when the countries in the sub-region were facing the threat of sustained instability due to the destructive activities and corrupting influence of drug traffickers.
For his part, Mr Kofi Annan said the massive surge in drug trafficking over the last decade presented a serious and growing threat to the region’s stability and development.
“Left unchecked, illegal drug trafficking could compromise the encouraging progress that West African nations have made in strengthening democracy and promoting human and economic development,” he added.
Former President Obasanjo said the illegal trade in drugs could cause political instability and social upheavals.
“The trade in illegal drugs has already caused devastation in other regions of the world. We must all work to prevent West Africa from experiencing the same fate. The commission looks forward to its urgent and important work,” he said.
The commission, which will publish a comprehensive report later this year, aims at developing evidence-based policy recommendations for political and civil society leaders to address drug trafficking; creating public awareness and ensuring political commitment to the issue, and promoting local and regional capacities to deal with drug trafficking.
Malaria Prevelance dropped in Ghana
Malaria prevalence in the country has dropped considerably from 86.8 per cent to 27.5 per cent, Dr Constance Bart-Plange, the Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), has said
The achievement is partly attributed to the distribution of free insecticide treated nets to households throughout the country.
Addressing the opening session of the Media Malaria Advocacy Orientation for media practitioners in Accra yesterday, Dr Bart-Plange said a total of 11,443,691 mosquito treated nets had so far been distributed nationwide.
The meeting was organised by the NMCP, the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programmes and the Voices Against Malaria in partnership with the Ghana Media Malaria Advocacy Network (GMMAN).
The aim of the meeting was to ride on the back of the ongoing AFCON 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy malaria programming and the launch of the AFCON 2013 Goal, Malaria magazine.
It was also to direct efforts towards energising the media to increase their advocacy support for the programmes and actions in malaria management.
Dr Bart-Plange said almost 90 per cent of Ghanaian mothers of children under five years now knew the cause of malaria and were able to identify mosquito bite as being responsible for the disease.
That, she said, was a positive move to taking the right step in preventing the disease and properly treating it. “The NMCP is proud of the achievement,” she said.
Dr Bart-Plange called on the media and all partners to play their roles of providing and disseminating the required information that could enhance efforts to promote the adoption of the approved tools in preventing and treating malaria.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, Country Director, John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programme, said malaria killed a child every 60 seconds in Africa and 655,000 people worldwide every year.
He said malaria increased healthcare cost for governments and led to loss of working days, a situation which contributed to absenteeism and decreased productivity at the workplace.
Mr Fiagbey indicated that malaria contributed to reduction in internal mobility and damage to the potential growth sectors of the economy such as tourism and deterred foreign and local investors from moving their capital around.
According to him, it was estimated that Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could have been $100 billion higher today if malaria had been eliminated in the early 1960s.
He said a 10 per cent reduction in malaria cases was associated with 0.3 per cent higher annual growth of the economy of any country.
He said “any expenditure made in malaria prevention today is an investment in development for tomorrow, for the children saved today are surely the builders of tomorrow.”
Ms Vivian N. A. Aubyn said that there was a need to work together to reduce the social and economic impact of malaria in order to promote development.
She said fostering partnerships was a strategy of the National Malaria Control Programme in Ghana captured in the Malaria Strategy Document (2008-2015).
Ms Rosemary Ardayfio, Chairperson of GMMAN, said the purpose of the programme was to ride on the back of the ongoing African Cup of Nations 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media in Ghana to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy for malaria programming.
The achievement is partly attributed to the distribution of free insecticide treated nets to households throughout the country.
Addressing the opening session of the Media Malaria Advocacy Orientation for media practitioners in Accra yesterday, Dr Bart-Plange said a total of 11,443,691 mosquito treated nets had so far been distributed nationwide.
The meeting was organised by the NMCP, the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programmes and the Voices Against Malaria in partnership with the Ghana Media Malaria Advocacy Network (GMMAN).
The aim of the meeting was to ride on the back of the ongoing AFCON 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy malaria programming and the launch of the AFCON 2013 Goal, Malaria magazine.
It was also to direct efforts towards energising the media to increase their advocacy support for the programmes and actions in malaria management.
Dr Bart-Plange said almost 90 per cent of Ghanaian mothers of children under five years now knew the cause of malaria and were able to identify mosquito bite as being responsible for the disease.
That, she said, was a positive move to taking the right step in preventing the disease and properly treating it. “The NMCP is proud of the achievement,” she said.
Dr Bart-Plange called on the media and all partners to play their roles of providing and disseminating the required information that could enhance efforts to promote the adoption of the approved tools in preventing and treating malaria.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, Country Director, John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programme, said malaria killed a child every 60 seconds in Africa and 655,000 people worldwide every year.
He said malaria increased healthcare cost for governments and led to loss of working days, a situation which contributed to absenteeism and decreased productivity at the workplace.
Mr Fiagbey indicated that malaria contributed to reduction in internal mobility and damage to the potential growth sectors of the economy such as tourism and deterred foreign and local investors from moving their capital around.
According to him, it was estimated that Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could have been $100 billion higher today if malaria had been eliminated in the early 1960s.
He said a 10 per cent reduction in malaria cases was associated with 0.3 per cent higher annual growth of the economy of any country.
He said “any expenditure made in malaria prevention today is an investment in development for tomorrow, for the children saved today are surely the builders of tomorrow.”
Ms Vivian N. A. Aubyn said that there was a need to work together to reduce the social and economic impact of malaria in order to promote development.
She said fostering partnerships was a strategy of the National Malaria Control Programme in Ghana captured in the Malaria Strategy Document (2008-2015).
Ms Rosemary Ardayfio, Chairperson of GMMAN, said the purpose of the programme was to ride on the back of the ongoing African Cup of Nations 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media in Ghana to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy for malaria programming.
32,000 School Girls to Benefit from Cervical Cancer Vaccinations
THIRTY-TWO thousand schoolgirls in 13 districts in the Central and Northern regions are to benefit from cervical cancer vaccinations.
The beneficiaries, aged between nine and 11, would be given a three-phase vaccination exercise against cervical cancer, which is said to be the leading cause of cancer deaths among women.
At a press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Appiah Denkyira, said the MoH had received 64,000 doses of Human Papillovirus Vaccines (HPV) worth $8,289,408, to help prevent cervical cancer among women of reproductive age.
Cervical cancer ranks as the first most frequent cancer among women between the ages of 15 and 44 in Ghana.
The vaccines were provided by Axios of the USA through the Rural Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (Ruwide).
On the theme, “Prevent cervical cancer, vaccinate the girl child”, all seven districts in the Central Region and six others in the Northern Region would benefit from the exercise.
The districts in the Central Region are Awutu-Senya, Awutu-Senya East, Cape Coast, Efutu, Ekumfi, Mfantseman and Agona West. Those in the Northern Region are East Gonja, Kumbungu, Mion, Savelugu-Nanton, Tolon and Yendi.
All the girls identified would be vaccinated three times and the vaccination exercise would begin from February 11 to 15, followed by the second exercise from March 18 to 22 and the third vaccination from September 23 to 27, 2013.
Dr Denkyira said the young girls were being targeted because it was assumed that at the age of nine and 11, the girls might not have had any sexual contact and, therefore, the vaccine would help to prevent them from contracting cervical cancer when they were initiated into sexual activities.
Cervical cancer is contracted when girls are initiated into sexual intercourse at an early stage or when they have unprotected sex with multiple partners or when one is infected with HPV, which is the virus that causes cervical cancer.
The young girls are being targeted and vaccinated before they have any sexual contact.
Explaining why the Central and Northern regions were chosen for the pilot programme, he said the 2010 Census showed that teenage pregnancy was rife in the Central Region, a situation which he said could lead to a lot of them having cervical cancer in future.
He said there was, therefore, the need to vaccinate the young ones before their first sexual contact.
Also the Northern Region, he explained, was chosen because the 2010 Census showed that sex was mostly delayed among young girls.
Therefore, he said the Northern Region was an idle location to immunise the girls.
Dr Dankyira said for the HPV vaccine to work best, “it is very important for adolescents to get all three doses long before sexual activity begins”.
Research, he said, had shown that the vaccine was highly effective against the commonest HPV types that cause cancer of the cervix, saying that it was only effective when all three shots were given at the required intervals.
The MoH, he said, was supporting the exercise with GH¢600,000, while an additional GH¢300,000 would be provided during the third phase of the vaccination in September this year.
The Executive Director of Ruwide, Ms Maria Don-Chebe, said her organisation, which sourced for the support, would assist rural women to be self-sufficient through skills training and development.
The beneficiaries, aged between nine and 11, would be given a three-phase vaccination exercise against cervical cancer, which is said to be the leading cause of cancer deaths among women.
At a press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Appiah Denkyira, said the MoH had received 64,000 doses of Human Papillovirus Vaccines (HPV) worth $8,289,408, to help prevent cervical cancer among women of reproductive age.
Cervical cancer ranks as the first most frequent cancer among women between the ages of 15 and 44 in Ghana.
The vaccines were provided by Axios of the USA through the Rural Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (Ruwide).
On the theme, “Prevent cervical cancer, vaccinate the girl child”, all seven districts in the Central Region and six others in the Northern Region would benefit from the exercise.
The districts in the Central Region are Awutu-Senya, Awutu-Senya East, Cape Coast, Efutu, Ekumfi, Mfantseman and Agona West. Those in the Northern Region are East Gonja, Kumbungu, Mion, Savelugu-Nanton, Tolon and Yendi.
All the girls identified would be vaccinated three times and the vaccination exercise would begin from February 11 to 15, followed by the second exercise from March 18 to 22 and the third vaccination from September 23 to 27, 2013.
Dr Denkyira said the young girls were being targeted because it was assumed that at the age of nine and 11, the girls might not have had any sexual contact and, therefore, the vaccine would help to prevent them from contracting cervical cancer when they were initiated into sexual activities.
Cervical cancer is contracted when girls are initiated into sexual intercourse at an early stage or when they have unprotected sex with multiple partners or when one is infected with HPV, which is the virus that causes cervical cancer.
The young girls are being targeted and vaccinated before they have any sexual contact.
Explaining why the Central and Northern regions were chosen for the pilot programme, he said the 2010 Census showed that teenage pregnancy was rife in the Central Region, a situation which he said could lead to a lot of them having cervical cancer in future.
He said there was, therefore, the need to vaccinate the young ones before their first sexual contact.
Also the Northern Region, he explained, was chosen because the 2010 Census showed that sex was mostly delayed among young girls.
Therefore, he said the Northern Region was an idle location to immunise the girls.
Dr Dankyira said for the HPV vaccine to work best, “it is very important for adolescents to get all three doses long before sexual activity begins”.
Research, he said, had shown that the vaccine was highly effective against the commonest HPV types that cause cancer of the cervix, saying that it was only effective when all three shots were given at the required intervals.
The MoH, he said, was supporting the exercise with GH¢600,000, while an additional GH¢300,000 would be provided during the third phase of the vaccination in September this year.
The Executive Director of Ruwide, Ms Maria Don-Chebe, said her organisation, which sourced for the support, would assist rural women to be self-sufficient through skills training and development.
Cyber Security Strategy Developed for Ghana
THE Ministry of Communications is developing a cyber security strategy for Ghana that will prevent fraud on the Internet, the Director-General of the National Communications Authority, Mr Paarock Vanpercy, has said.
The strategy will include the establishment of a national computer emergency response team (CERT) to create security awareness among the ministries, departments and agencies and other government agencies.
Addressing the opening session of the West African Cybersecurity and Cybercrime workshop for West African countries in Accra yesterday, Mr Vanpercy said a cyber security policy document focused on areas such as legislative and regulatory framework, cyber security technology framework, culture of security and capacity building, among others.
The workshop, which was organised by the US Department of State and the Government of Ghana, was aimed at providing the tools and information to evaluate and improve the sub-region’s capacity to address cybersecurity challenges.
It was also intended to help develop a comprehensive and implementable cybercrime and security regulations in Africa.
Mr Vanpercy said it also focused on strategy implementation timeliness, specific initiatives, establishment of a national cyber security working group, a national cybersecurity centre and a national cybersecurity council.
According to him, the ever-increasing threat of cybercrime and its associated impact on the economic and social development of the respective countries were a source of concern.
He said ICT had become essential to the operations of governments, corporate institutions and individuals, but the benefits accruing from the growing access to the Internet was being undermined by those exploiting its capabilities to the detriment of others.
“With such widespread use of the Internet, the data that resides on and flows across networks varying from banking and security transactions to medical records, proprietary data and personal correspondence are at the mercy of persons who have made cybercrime their chosen field of endeavour,” said Mr Vanpercy.
The Director-General of Administration of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP), Ms Rose Bio Atinga, said what was even more distressing about the growing incidence of cybercrime was the fact that the masterminds behind those criminal acts included children.
Regrettably, she said, “hacker tools” were easily available on the Internet and once downloaded, could be used by even novice computer users, thus expanding the population of possible wrongdoers.
Ms Atinga said the current trend included hacking into emails of buyers from Ghana and suppliers from Europe and Asia and obtaining valuable information which was used fraudulently.
She said the introduction of the law on cybercrimes in Ghana which allowed the police to prosecute offenders in the absence of victims or complainants would surely improve the performance of the Ghana Police Service in the arrest and prosecution of offenders.
The Head of the United States Information Service, Ms Jeanne Clarke, said the participants were to share their knowledge and experiences with colleagues from West Africa and to increase their expertise about a subject that was crucial to the security and economic development of the sub-region.
She said the United States, through the Department of State and Justice, had been providing training and technical assistance on cybersecurity in West Africa since 2006 and remained committed to helping the region to address the issue.
“If we do this, we enhance global security and create an economic and social environment that promotes the free flow of ideas and commerce. In sub-Saharan Africa, particulary here in West Africa, as wireless networks and broadband Internet access proliferate at a dizzying rate, nations are grappling with threats to this cyber environment ranging from computer hacking and sabotage to terrorism facilitated over the Internet to transnational crime,” she said.
The strategy will include the establishment of a national computer emergency response team (CERT) to create security awareness among the ministries, departments and agencies and other government agencies.
Addressing the opening session of the West African Cybersecurity and Cybercrime workshop for West African countries in Accra yesterday, Mr Vanpercy said a cyber security policy document focused on areas such as legislative and regulatory framework, cyber security technology framework, culture of security and capacity building, among others.
The workshop, which was organised by the US Department of State and the Government of Ghana, was aimed at providing the tools and information to evaluate and improve the sub-region’s capacity to address cybersecurity challenges.
It was also intended to help develop a comprehensive and implementable cybercrime and security regulations in Africa.
Mr Vanpercy said it also focused on strategy implementation timeliness, specific initiatives, establishment of a national cyber security working group, a national cybersecurity centre and a national cybersecurity council.
According to him, the ever-increasing threat of cybercrime and its associated impact on the economic and social development of the respective countries were a source of concern.
He said ICT had become essential to the operations of governments, corporate institutions and individuals, but the benefits accruing from the growing access to the Internet was being undermined by those exploiting its capabilities to the detriment of others.
“With such widespread use of the Internet, the data that resides on and flows across networks varying from banking and security transactions to medical records, proprietary data and personal correspondence are at the mercy of persons who have made cybercrime their chosen field of endeavour,” said Mr Vanpercy.
The Director-General of Administration of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP), Ms Rose Bio Atinga, said what was even more distressing about the growing incidence of cybercrime was the fact that the masterminds behind those criminal acts included children.
Regrettably, she said, “hacker tools” were easily available on the Internet and once downloaded, could be used by even novice computer users, thus expanding the population of possible wrongdoers.
Ms Atinga said the current trend included hacking into emails of buyers from Ghana and suppliers from Europe and Asia and obtaining valuable information which was used fraudulently.
She said the introduction of the law on cybercrimes in Ghana which allowed the police to prosecute offenders in the absence of victims or complainants would surely improve the performance of the Ghana Police Service in the arrest and prosecution of offenders.
The Head of the United States Information Service, Ms Jeanne Clarke, said the participants were to share their knowledge and experiences with colleagues from West Africa and to increase their expertise about a subject that was crucial to the security and economic development of the sub-region.
She said the United States, through the Department of State and Justice, had been providing training and technical assistance on cybersecurity in West Africa since 2006 and remained committed to helping the region to address the issue.
“If we do this, we enhance global security and create an economic and social environment that promotes the free flow of ideas and commerce. In sub-Saharan Africa, particulary here in West Africa, as wireless networks and broadband Internet access proliferate at a dizzying rate, nations are grappling with threats to this cyber environment ranging from computer hacking and sabotage to terrorism facilitated over the Internet to transnational crime,” she said.
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