A Supreme Court Judge has advocated a special court at the circuit level, to try cases of armed robbery, narcotics and armed conflicts. Launching a new book - Fighting Armed Robbery in Ghana- at the British Council Hall in Accra, Mr. Justice Stephen Allan Brobbey said such a court would help to decongest the normal courts and send a strong signal to robbers that the State was determined to deal ruthlessly with the menace. He said it was possible to attract international funding to set up the special court along the lines of he commercial court, reminding his audience that in he 1970s, a special court was set up by the National Redemption Council, the military regime headed by then Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, to try armed robbers and those dealing in narcotic drugs. "It is possible to try cases of armed robbery, narcotics and armed conflicts at the circuit level," Mr. Justice Brobbey, who performed the launching on behalf of the Chief Justice suggested. "We are losing the fight against armed robbery," he warned and invited "all those in the justice system to come together to find a solution to this social menace." He said not enough was being done to fight armed robbery. "It is a vicious circle of arrest, release, more robbers," he said. Mr Justice Brobbey told the audience that lynching and other forms of instant justice had become the means by which the ordinary members of society were seeking justice. “They think the law is not helping them. They should help themselves.” The book was authored by Prof. Ken A. Attafuah, former Executive Secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission, and described by reviewers as a lawyer, criminologist and human rights activist. “Robbery or armed robbery as it is commonly known,” he wrote in the opening paragraph of the book, "is a source of fear and anguish among the populace. No One is spared the horrifying brutality of this crime, or the dread it spreads ... Robbery is a crime of violence. It is the taking of another person's property by force or with the threat of violence. Owing to its heinous nature and traumatic effects on victims, robbery is one of the most dreaded crimes known to mankind." Prof. Attafuah said armed robbery is mainly a youngman's game. Perpetrators are aged between 17 and 35 and the abundance of uncompleted buildings, large open gutters and poor illumination of cities and towns provide a safe haven for them. “The large number of unemployable unemployed youths,” he said, ensured that there was a constant production line for new recruits. He said poor urban dwellings and the failure of "our collective responsibility" was generating criminology at an alarming rate and warned that the police are ill-equipped to deal with the menace. Ms. Anna Bossman, acting Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, who introduced the Special Guest said dealing with armed robbers posed a serious challenge to all Ghanaians. She told the audience that while armed robbery is heinous, it is against the law to resort to lynching and other forms of instant justice to seek redress. The book has already received several glowing reviews. Mr. Kofi Bucknor, Director of Ghana Television, said fighting armed robbery in Ghana "prescribes critical policy measures and behaviour to guard against the traumatic experience of being robbed. This is truly comforting and assuring, after the harrowing realisation of how truly vulnerable we all are". One-time Inspector General of Police Kwaku Pepra Kyei, now member of the Council of State, said "The general public should read this highly educative book in order to know how to better support the police and protect themselves and society as a whole from the menace of armed robbery." Source: The Times