Juvenile Delinquency On Ascendancy in Wa

By Lydia Darlington Fordjour

Wa — Recruitment of children by criminal gangs to assist in their operations is on the ascendancy in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region.

According to the Wa Municipal Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vincent Appiah, the situation was gradually becoming a menace in the municipality as this was evidenced in the increasing number of such juveniles in their custody.

The children who are mostly between the ages of 11 and 18 respectively are recruited by 'criminals lords' who used them baits for unsuspecting victims of their criminal activities in most cases.

Speaking with the Ghanaian Times in an interview here, ASP Appiah, said most of the youngsters were school dropouts or never attended school before, adding that, "these children break into people's homes to assist their senior counterparts to steal such items as laptops, mobile phones and motor bikes."

He said although the Command did not have separate data on the children and adult suspects, they could infer from arrests they made that a lot more children were been lured into criminal activities.

ASP Appiah said the trend as worrying and said the situation was compounded by the absence of borstal homes in the region to keep the children for rehabilitation.

"Although crime rate recorded in 2018 had reduced as compared to that of 2017, we cannot celebrate because the perpetrators are mostly from 14 years to 27 years," he said, adding, that this was not a very good sign for the municipality.

ASP Appiah said that stealing, which mostly topped cases on their charge list, totaled 460 in 2018 as against 495 for 2017, representing a seven percent decrease with 42 suspects convicted and jailed, six acquitted and discharged while 36 other cases were pending.

"Three children were also convicted and two of them were sent to a burstal home at Swedru in the Central Region as per the sentence but were rejected by the home on the grounds that they were ex-convicts of the home and could not be admitted for a second time," he said.

Consequently, ASP Appiah said the Command had to write to the Attorney General 's Department for further directives.

He explained that when arrested, the children became a burden to the police as their families mostly abandoned them, at the mercy of the harsh conditions at the cells.

"Sometimes these children spend unnecessary time at the cell even when they have been given bail because no one was willing to stand as surety for their release", he said, pointing out that even when they were sent to court and convicted, most of them spent several weeks in the cells because the parents were not ready to provide them with toiletries and the provisions they would need at the Burstal homes.

ASP Appiah who blamed parents for neglecting their parental responsibilities noted that if children were not properly provided for or guided, they became victims of negative influence that lured them into destructive lifestyles.

When contacted, the Director of the Department of Children, Madam Matilda Chireh, said her unit was aware of the unfortunate situation as it continued to interfere with the development of the children.

She said with the limited resources, her outfit had embarked on several sensitisation programmes in the communities and on radio stations to get parents to appreciate their responsibilities towards their children.

She called on couples in the municipality to give birth to the number of children they could cater for, not just financially but socially and urged them to take keen interest in the affairs of their wards.

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