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Once again, we are in December, the month in which Christians all over the world celebrate Christmas to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.

It is one festive occasion that holiday makers take advantage of to travel far and near. Families and friends use the occasion to plan activities for re-unions. Churches fix their annual conventions to bring their members together to celebrate the occasion and renew their faith. Many more also travel to favorite locations to relax over the long holiday period.

However, it is increasingly becoming one occasion where we tend to report a lot of road traffic accidents. This is all in spite of continuous admonitions from the security services and road safety warnings by the National Road Safety Commission. One factor people tend to ignore is that due to the heavy harmattan season, road visibility diminishes, particularly early in the mornings and late nights. But apart from road safety, there is also the issue of crime which characterizes the busy period.

And so, as the Christmas season fast approaches, one would expect the characteristic increase in traffic flow especially in the cities, towns and the highways. The mass movement of people to commercial centres become overbearing at times. Unfortunately, such situations result in the escalation of crime and other social vices that call for the intervention of the security personnel on a higher scale than in ‘normal’ times.

Today is, therefore, happy that the Ghana Police Service has assured the whole country that it will do all that it can to protect lives and property during this festive season so that we can have an incident-free Christmas.

One issue that has for some years now been of grave concern is the use of some categories of fire crackers and explosives. It is clear that although these firecrackers and explosives have been banned, they always find their way onto the Ghanaian market.

And it is for this reason that Today is equally happy that one of the measures announced by the police to deal with criminals is the arrest of people in possession of banned explosives. In our view, traders who import such crackers and officials at our entry points should be properly educated to prevent the importation of the banned products in the first place.

Again, during the Christmas celebration, it becomes necessary for police presence in all the ‘trouble spots’ and we are gratified to note that the police authorities have given an assurance that the police will be ‘everywhere’.

Since drink-driving is a worrying source and a contributory factor to rad accidents, we support the police advice to commercial vehicle drivers to stay away from alcohol and drugs. However, we would even want to go a step further and throw the caution to private car drivers, some of whom are also guilty of drink-driving offences during this time of the year.

We therefore urge all drivers, both private and commercial, to follow all regulations and cooperate with police personnel, who are expected to be posted to various spots to ensure law and order.

Today wants all Ghanaians and residents to have confidence in the police and help them to carry out their constitutionally mandated duties of ensuring law and order and protecting law-abiding citizens.

We also urge the police to release every machinery at their disposal so Ghanaians can enjoy a yuletide that is devoid of any nasty incidents.

Ghana has some of the finest crop of police personnel in the world, and we believe that with the assurances so far given, and with support from the public, we shall have one of the most memorable celebrations ever.