When the Interior Minister, Muntaka Mubarak, the Inspector General of Police, and the heads of other security agencies went before the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, the matter was brought to their attention.
A Committee member expressed concern regarding the violation that was brought to light in the Auditor General’s report: “illegal possession of fire arms by civilians; contrary to the above stated provision, we reviewed the fire arms license and noted that 606 fire arms were illegally possessed by civilians since their licenses had expired and had not been renewed and thereby rendering their possessions and use unlawful.”
“We obtained the 606 illegal possession of fire arms from the licenses issued from the general counterpull receipts to holders of fire arms.”
In response to the severity of this violation and the steps taken by his organisation to resolve it, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Christian Tetteh Yohuno stated that the Ghana Police Service is now educating gun owners about the importance of promptly renewing their permits when they expire.
“Honourable Chair, the division has compiled the database of all licensed gun holders as recommended by the Audit team and so what we are doing now is we are sensitising people who are in possession of firearms and have licences, and when the licence expires, they don’t go to renew as expected.”
“We are getting the names of all persons so that even when the time is due, the police will call you to come renew your licence. This exercise is ongoing now,” he informed the Committee.
After the Auditor-General’s report showed that more than 600 firearms are being illegally possessed by civilians with expired licences, Interior Minister Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak has called for a comprehensive digital revamp of Ghana’s firearms licensing system.
He said that in order to reduce the rising risk of unlawful possession, digitisation would close gaps in the manual system and guarantee timely renewals.
By the end of the year, he hopes the entire system will be digitalised.
“One of the challenges is that we have is everything that they do is manual… these 606 that they are talking about are scattered across the country. We are currently working on digitalising almost every system in the Ministry. We are almost at the tail end of it and very hopeful by November or December it should come on board,” he reiterated.
Source: newsthemegh.com