President John Dramani Mahama urged civil society organisations and faith leaders on Friday to shift the focus of Ghana’s crime-fighting strategy from arrested youths to the criminal “kingpins” who, he said, run the operations behind them.
Addressing the meeting with CSOs, President Mahama acknowledged the human cost of a heavy-handed approach to prosecution. “I like that somebody raised that, what are we doing to the kingpins? Because most of those 1,400 who have been arrested are young youth who are looking for something to be able to look after themselves,” he said. “And we’ll prosecute them, we’ll imprison them, but those who run those prisons are the ones that we must be arresting and imprisoning, not these little boys.”
Mahama said current sentencing practices — which he described as stiff, with minimum penalties running from five to fifteen years — risk treating detained youths as a long-term fix rather than addressing the organised networks that exploit them. “Be given, there’s no slap on the wrist. What’s the least sentence? Fifteen years. Five to fifteen,” he said. “Yeah, so we’ll catch these boys and we’ll feed them for five years. Look after them for five years and discharge them. But like I’m saying, maybe we can look rather for the kingpins and deal with them in a major way so that we are able to get something on this whole thing.”
The president called on civil society and faith groups to partner with government on preventive measures — including youth rehabilitation, job creation, and community-based interventions — while law enforcement sharpens its focus on dismantling organised criminal structures. He argued that arresting low-level participants without building cases against higher-level organisers merely perpetuates the cycle of crime and punishment.
The remarks come as the administration faces pressure to respond to rising petty and organised crime while balancing human-rights concerns for arrested minors and young adults. President Mahama, who returned to office in January 2025, reiterated the need for a comprehensive approach that combines enforcement with social and economic supports for vulnerable youth.
Civil society representatives at the meeting welcomed the emphasis on rehabilitation but warned that shifting enforcement priorities will require strengthened investigative capacity, witness protection, and judicial cooperation to successfully prosecute the alleged masterminds behind gang networks. Faith leaders urged immediate support for families affected by arrests, and called for transparent oversight of detention facilities to prevent abuses.
As the government reviews its strategy, the president pledged to consult stakeholders on specific policy reforms, including targeted operations against suspected kingpins and scaled-up programmes to give young people alternatives to criminal activity.
Leave a Reply