President J.A. Kufuor has called on the public to report any suspicious persons and movements to the police to help deal with the recent assassinations and violent crimes in the country. He explained that in addition to the arrangements to deal with violent crime, the government was taking measures to strengthen the capacity of the security agencies to check the drug menace. The President gave the assurance at the quarterly meeting with members of the Council of State at the Castle, Osu, yesterday. "The security challenge has been disturbing. We are experiencing violent crime, especially strange assassinations and drug menace," the President said. Reported drug cases have increased in Ghana recently, a situation which is gradually making the country a transit point in the drug trade. The most recent case that has received extensive international coverage was one involving two British teenagers alleged to have carried substances suspected to be drugs in their laptop bags on their way from Accra to London. Additionally, the country has also witnessed horrifying experiences of assassination described by some commentators as contract killing. Within the first half of the year, prominent people, including Mr Samuel Ennin, former Chairman of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association; Mr Rokko Frimpong, a former Deputy Managing Director (Operations) of the Ghana Commercial Bank and Nii Kwartey Quartey, 61, a retired officer of the Public Works Department (PWD), were shot and killed by unidentified assassins. Responding to opening remarks by Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, the Chairman of the Council of State, President Kufuor said the general law and order situation in the country was causing headaches but gave the assurance that the government was not sparing any effort to put down the security situation. He said the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service was being empowered and encouraged to deliver on its mandate, adding that "although some arrest had been made, a lot more work needs to be done". President Kufuor underscored the need for more collaboration between the public and the police, since the security apparatus would not be able to do the work alone. Updating the members of the Council of State on the energy situation, President Kufuor said the government had done all that was needed to address the crisis in the short term and was hopeful the challenge would be resolved shortly. He said from the energy experts at the Volta River Authority (VRA), the current transmission capacity and installation of emergency plants would be adequate for the country in the short term. Recalling his visit to Akosombo and Tema last Tuesday to inspect the Akosombo Dam and the installation of emergency plants, President Kufuor allayed the fears of members of the public about the possible col¬lapse of the dam following the reduction in the water level. He said the dam was not in danger and that reports he had received indicated that the water level was rising. The President also spoke of the establishment of a bauxite refinery in the Western Region and said the total investment was estimated at $2.2 billion. He said the year 2007 had witnessed many events, including the country's 50th anniversary celebration and the African Union Summit in Accra and expressed appreciation to all Ghanaians for their support and co-operation during the meeting. On the discovery of oil in the country, President Kufuor asked Ghanaians to greet the news with cautious optimism and guide their steps as they waited for more extensive work to be done on the discovery and the eventual commercial exploitation of the product. Earlier, Professor Adzei-Bekoe had said it was unfortunate that in spite of the exciting moments Ghanaians had enjoyed as a nation because of the Golden Jubilee, the energy crisis still remained a problem. He underscored the need for the government to work out a national energy strategy, taking into account all sources of energy, security of supply, relative costs, safety and environmental as well as social implications. He said much thought and effort had gone into the search for a permanent solution to the problem, adding that Ghanaians were looking forward to an end to the crisis and the day the country would have all the electricity it needed at a reasonable cost to power its way to becoming a middle-income country. Touching on the recent oil discovery, Prof. Adzei Bekoe said although many saw it as an end to the country's problems, history had shown that a number of countries which had been exporting oil for a number of years had still not come out of their development challenges. "In fact it could be the cause of many new challenges," he added. He commended the government and the people of Ghana for successfully hosting the African Union (AU) Summit in spite of "predictions of doom and threats to persons and national security", adding that Ghana played host to about 50 heads of state and government without any incident. Source: Daily Graphic