The Executive Secretary of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Dr. Adam Bonaa, has blamed Ghana’s outdated firearms laws for the tragic death of a student during the annual Fire Festival at Bimbilla in the Northern Region.
Speaking on GHOne TV’s GHToday with Emmanuel Agyabeng on Monday, July 7, Dr. Bonaa described the incident as sad and preventable, lamenting the country’s failure to update its firearms regulations to match current realities. According to him, the current firearms law is over 50 years old and older than most Ghanaians, including himself.
“It’s rather on a sad note that a young senior high school student would have to lose her life because she left school to witness or observe or take part in a celebration,” he said.
The victim, identified as Fatima, was a form two student of Bimbilla Senior High School. Its alleged the she had secretly left home with friends to witness the celebration despite her parents’ disapproval. The incident occurred on July 5, 2025, during a procession from the regent’s palace to the Wampu Dam, where festival-goers traditionally throw fire to mark the occasion.
Dr. Bonaa explained that the Arms Commission had picked intelligence as usual that there would be a lot of firearms involved in the celebration, including the firing of live ammunition and lethal ammunition, as well as the production and detonation of improvised explosive devices. He said the Commission warned that such activities should be stopped, but unfortunately, as has been the case over the years, the warnings were ignored.
He noted that while the perpetrators of such shootings must be blamed, part of the responsibility also lies with the country’s inadequate firearms regulations. “Do I blame them? Yes, in one leg, I will blame those perpetrators who did that. But I must also blame the fact that we do not have adequate regulation to cater for what happened,” he said.
Dr. Bonaa further explained that without proper regulation, enforcement becomes difficult, stating that “at the moment, what we are doing in the arms race in Ghana is attempting to enforce. You cannot enforce without adequate regulation. It’s simply not possible.”
He said Ghana is a signatory to many international treaties which require the country to domesticate certain control measures, including a national control list to regulate items such as ammonium nitrate used in producing explosives, acids, and other materials. However, he noted that there is no such control list in place.
The Arms Commission boss added that although there is a bill to replace the outdated firearms law, it is currently at the ministerial level awaiting passage. He expressed hope that within the next month or two, the bill would be passed into law to allow effective regulation and enforcement to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Dr. Bonaa also recounted other shooting incidents at festivals, including one in Accra where a woman was shot dead and another where a journalist was injured by charged gunpowder fired into his eyes, requiring treatment abroad. He emphasised that until the law is updated to regulate locally manufactured guns and the use of firearms at such events, enforcement will remain a catch-up game with tragic consequences.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
