The Ghana Police Service has reiterated that the ban on the use and possession of firecrackers is still force.
The Executive Instrument (E.I) 21 of 1999, prohibits the manufacture, possession or carriage of any explosives, including firecrackers.
An apparent rise in the use of firecrackers in recent years, particularly this Christmas season, has led to suggestions that the stance of the police on the use of firecrackers may have been relaxed.
There have also been claims that the police have failed to enforce the ban.
However, the police have dismissed these assertions, stating that the ban still holds and that they are working hard to ensure it is observed.
“The warning against the use of firecrackers is still in force and the police is also enforcing it. The fact that you hear some people still firing it doesn’t mean that the warning has been thrown overboard. Wherever there are human beings and there are laws, you’ll get people who’ll flout them. The police are looking for those who are flouting the laws,” the Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Cephas Arthur told Citi News.
The police launched “Operation Father Christmas” which was aimed at clamping down on the importation, sale and use of fire crackers this Christmas season
Cephas Arthur, however, admitted that the police had some difficulty identifying those who used the banned firecrackers but added that a detailed account of the arrests made would only be made available after the holidays.
“What is important is to intensify public education because some of the people fire them in the nooks and crannies of their residences and it is difficult to find any police man at the time they do. The ones that we find firing the banned firecrackers, we’ll deal with them”.
“Until after the Christmas, when we are taking stock to assess our performance, we may not be able to able to put in the public domain whether some people were arrested for having used the fire crackers or having been seen in possession of the firecrackers,” he stated.
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