Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Dean of Academic Affairs, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, has cautioned Ghanaians to be wary of the activities of miscreants during the lockdown period.
He said some miscreants might take advantage of the situation to inflict havoc on people within the lockdown areas.
The two week lockdown of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area was due to a Presidential Directive as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus in the country.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Dr Antwi-Danso said due to the lockdown, some miscreants such as petty thieves and armed robbers would like to take advantage and congregate and do their own thing; “knowing very well that there is a lockdown”.
He urged Ghanaians to be very careful about it and to take their own security issues very seriously.
He again cautioned that within the lockdown period, beyond these petty thieves, there could be the problem with food security; stating that “There is going to be panic buying, panic stocking and all these things have implications for our security”.
“Again, we when talk of food security; how are going to be supplied with food from the hinterlands and things like that? Food prices are going to go up. Commuters would have problems with trotro drivers.”
Dr Antwi-Danso, who is also a Security Analyst, noted that people were going take advantage of the lockdown situation to increase prices and that all kinds of things which were not normal would happen; which had security implications.
“We need to understand why these are not normal times? Because they are not normal times, we are going to see abnormalities.”
He said there was the need for Ghanaians to brace themselves for these abnormalities and fight it with the strength that they had through their institutions and the Constitution.
He said first and foremost Ghanaians need to understand that the COVID-19 situation was real and that it was not a fabricated thing; declaring that “it is something which is a worldwide problem and therefore, we can’t ignore it”.
He warned that the COVID-19 was no respecter of persons; stating that great men across the globe had been inflicted with disease.
Dr Antwi-Danso lauded Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information and his sector Ministry for their professional manner in releasing information to Ghanaians on the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
The Dean added that there was more to be done by the media to drum home that the COVID-19 was real.
He appealed to Ghanaians to take seriously measures outlined by the President to contain the disease such as social distancing, hand washing with soap and the use of alcohol based hand sanitizers to help to fight the virus.
“One let’s take the Presidential Directive very seriously. Two let’s obey the laid down principles for fighting it. And three let’s fight it collectively,” he said.
He advised politicians not to do politics with national problems and international problems.
Touching on the deployment of security forces to enforce the lockdown, Dr Antwi-Danso urged the security forces to be professional in handing the issue.
He urged Ghanaians to collaborate with the security forces to ensure the success of the lockdown, as part of efforts to contain the disease outbreak.
“When there is understanding the security forces will not go down beating people. But then when there are recalcitrant people, we may get the security forces applying minimum force.”
He said the police and the military always had the right to use minimum force for compliance’s sake.
“The thing (COVID-19) is real. It is no fluke. We don’t know long it is going to stay? But how long it is going to stay will depend on how we fight it?” he said.
“Let’s fight with the measures that have been put in place for us. Let’s all be one at the war front. No politicking. No religious dimensions of it. And let’s fight the virus.”
By Iddi Yire, GNA
