Ashanti Regional Minister rejects most violent region tag by FOSDA

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, has disagreed with the assertion that the region has been recording violent crimes more than all other regions in Ghana.

A media-based monitoring group, Foundation for Security Development in Africa (FOSDA) in a recent report stated that between June and July in 2022, the Ashanti Region recorded more violent crimes than all others and therefore tagged the region as the "most violent".

The report named the Bono Region as the most peaceful, with no violent incident recorded in June and July 2022.

FOSDA said the findings were based on media reports it had monitored.

But reacting to FOSDA's report at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, the Ashanti Regional Minister said the report does not reflect the true situation on the ground.

“No country in this world can eradicate security threats in its entirety but we have done very well. We don’t talk. Our strategies are different. We have people that go on swoops, intelligent-led swoop. They will come and parade knives etc to the full glare of the people. My strategy is not that. What the people of the Ashanti Region want to hear is that they can sleep and go out to do their work in peace”, he said.

He said the Regional Security Council has made significant gains.

He said the only major security challenge he inherited as minister has been resolved and that was the issue between residents the Asante Akyem Agogo area and cattle herdsmen, who over the years were destroying farmlands with their cattle.