The Kasoa stretch, our description for the area from this Central Regional bustling town as it winds away towards Winneba, has earned an unenviable notoriety in recent times.
The area was a major receptacle for hordes of refugees from the then civil war-torn Liberia and local criminals who joined them in Budumburam in the outskirts of Kasoa.
Although the refugees have largely returned to their country of origin, some of them are still living there and joined by Nigerian criminals, a dangerous amalgam of bad guys has been created who unleash a reign of terror not only in the surrounding areas but even in Accra.
Many criminal activities, some of them murderous, have taken place in this general area but hardly have these warranted the kind of action required in such circumstances.
The toll is countless and unless the criminals are made to understand that the place cannot remain a safe haven for them indefinitely, they would continue to rob, maim and even kill, their stock-in-trade.
The suspected murderers of the Sogakope assemblyman were traced to the stretch and many before it.
It would not be surprising if many wanted criminals are taking cover here.
In a society where people do not report suspicious characters to the law enforcement agents, we should not expect much from the public. A better way of fishing the criminals out would be preferably and this should be a consistent module.
Some police officers met their untimely death along this stretch. Sometime ago, a joint military/police operation was undertaken at Kasoa to rid the place of the human venoms. It was short-lived and very soon it was business as usual with the stretch suffering some of its worst crimes.
We can bet that the criminals consider themselves somewhat invincible because, after all, they have operated near indefinitely.
Besides harbouring hardened robbers, the locations are havens for hired assassins, some of whom have been in action lately.
Rival chiefs have used them to settle their scores; the outcome of which turned bloody in the end.
Even as we concentrate on the coronavirus and how to manage it, we wish to remind the security agents that the criminals would use these worrying moments to embark on surprise missions from their Kasoa bases.
Until a major operation is undertaken to rid the stretch of the criminals, the Kasoa Divisional Police Command should be provided with the necessary logistics to police the area.
In such areas where criminals are strong and rely on a sophisticated network of links, intelligence is critical.