Traditional leaders who authorise celebratory gunfire could face criminal charges if someone is killed, according to Dr Adam Bonaa, Executive Secretary of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NACSA).
Speaking on GhanaWeb’s Lowdown programme, Dr Bonaa said responsibility for a fatal shooting could extend beyond the person who pulled the trigger. Anyone who supplied the weapon or gave permission for it to be fired could also be held liable.
He described a situation in which a traditional ruler gives a firearm to a masquerader during a durbar, and a bystander is struck by a bullet and dies.
“If I gave you my gun, you had my authority to discharge the gun, and you fired the gun, and someone is fatally shot, the person is dead,” he said.
“You won’t say, because I gave you my gun willingly to fire and you fired, you will not be culpable, you will,” Bonaa added.
He said police investigations would examine the full chain of custody surrounding the weapon, including who provided it initially and whether it was passed on without the required permit.
That process could involve people connected to the firearm’s supply and authorisation during major cultural celebrations, including Hogbetsotso.
“So all that line will be investigated. And so you might end up with 10 people instead of two,” he said.
Bonaa stressed that possession of an unregistered firearm was a serious felony, rather than a misdemeanour. He described gun ownership in Ghana as a privilege that should follow a proper assessment process.
NACSA, he said, had collected more than 2,000 weapons during an earlier amnesty and was now preparing regulatory reforms intended to strengthen firearm controls.
Trafficking and organised crime
During the interview, Bonaa also connected illicit firearms with organised crime and said 99 per cent of Ghana’s human trafficking cases were “cartel-based”.
He described trafficking networks involving recruiters, middlemen and financiers. Among the examples he cited was the trafficking of children for fishing labour in coastal communities, Yeji and Atebubu.
He also referred to schemes linked to QNET and fake football trials in Vietnam and Cambodia, which he said exploited visa-free travel arrangements.
Bonaa rejected suggestions that Ghana lacked the investigative capacity to deal with transnational crime. He argued that international agencies, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), depended on Ghanaian officers when operating in the country.
“They know that the FBI, their work would amount to nothing without us in this country assisting them,” he said.
He also pointed to Ghana’s security cooperation across West Africa under the ECOWAS small-arms convention and through work with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
