Arms Race As Tema Port Security Intercept Cache Of 61 Foreign Pistols

Security officers at the Tema Port have intercepted a cache of dangerous guns that were being smuggled into the country by some importers, Whatsup News can report.

The interception was made on the 27th November 2021 at about 1000hours according to an intelligence circular that WhatsUp News has seen.

Numbering 61, the assortment of foreign-made pistols had been concealed in a 40 footer container of personal effects from Turkey.

The Police have since arrested two persons – Asmin Abdulai Alhassan, 35 and Eric Nana Amissah, 33 – who had been billed to receive the container said to have been shipped by a Turkey-based Ghanaian called Emmanuel Owusu Ansah.

The sixty-one pieces of foreign pistols were seized and stored by CEPS/Tema in the Armoury at CEPS Long Room, Tema under permanent armed police guards, according to information.

The interception comes in the wake of concerns that the hardships in the country could spark an insurrection.

Former Chief of Defense Staff, Brig. Gen. Joseph Nunoo-Mensah has said that the country is sitting on a time bomb as leaders look on unconcerned while the hustling youth numbers hawking on the streets increase.

And this is not the first arms bust in 2021. In September, another cache of weapons was busted by the Preventive and the Counter-Terrorism units of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at the Golden Jubilee Terminal at the Tema Port.

The items had included nine side arms (pistols), eight assault rifles and 219 pieces of live ammunition which had been discovered during physical examination of a 40-footer container meant for house-to-house delivery.

Again in that case, the container was supposed to be holding personal belongings, often listed as clothing, shoes, home accessories, television sets, among others, imported from the United States into the country.

The emerging trend is that people are smuggling weapons and ammunition into the country by and a possible explosion could be imminent.