Dr. Jones Opoku-Oware, a lecturer and criminologist, believes that allowing Burkina Faso’s military ruler, Ibrahim Traoré, to keep his sidearm while exchanging pleasantries with President John Dramani Mahama during the inauguration ceremony was a security lapse.
Dr. Opoku-Ware says the incident could have been avoided because it was a risky security situation.
Some Ghanaians are questioning why Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso, went to greet President Mahama with a gun on his side waist during the inauguration ceremony.
Others have also claimed that it was nothing to worry about since the Burkinabe leader was allowed to take along his gun because it posed no security threats.
But speaking to Kwabena Agyapong on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, the lecturer disagreed, stressing that it was a security threat that should have been avoided.
’’I saw it, and simply I was stating that it was a glitch or a minor security breach. At these ceremonies, there are security protocols that ought to be followed, and the major or primary objective is to secure the president and to ensure that anything that prevents or poses a security threat to the president, we, as much as possible, limit it or eliminate it. When I saw the man with the sidearm, I concluded that it wasn’t right. It wasn’t right because it unnecessarily put our president in some kind of security situation. Imagine this man was criminally motivated to come after the president; we would have given him the opportunity to do that.”
He contended that we could have found a way to communicate with him by removing the sidearm before exchanging pleasantries with the Ghanaian president.
”We sometimes assume that people who are down there are criminally motivated to come after our leaders, but many times, when you evaluate the history, you will find that those who are closer to Presidents are the ones who harm them. Though the President is a President, we should remove all the things that can put our President in harm’s way so that even if the person is even criminally motivated to do something, we will make it more difficult for the person in terms of the President’s security. So no matter how anybody sees it, it was a clear security breach, and I don’t think that next time we have to allow that.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
