Mrs Jemima AbenaKonadu Mensah, the NCCE Ga East Municipal Director, last week urged Ghanaians to protect the enviable name Ghana has earned as ‘beacon of peace’, in the sub-Sahara region.
She said ‘we are in an unfavourable period of time when crime and its related issues are on the increase and as Ghanaians, we should see ourselves, as one people with a common destiny having one country to protect irrespective of our political, religious or tribal affiliations.’
Mrs Mensah was speaking at a dialogue meeting of the Interparty DialogueC’ttee(IPDC)to discuss emerging national security issues such as violent extremism and secessionist attacks in some parts of the country.
The dialogue was sponsored by the European Union (EU) and in collaboration with the National Security Ministry under the theme: NCCE/EU Preventing Electoral Violence and Providing Security (NORPREVSEC) project.
The Ga East Director of NCCErecalled that each passing day we hear of abominable crimes, incidents of robberies sometimes at various banks with its associated killings of security men.
“We also witness ritual murders, youth going on a rampage and destroying public property, shooting of the youth in Ejura, Odododiodio, murders and electoral violence which were disturbing,” she said.
She entreated all stakeholders to assist in upholding national cohesion and inclusive participation for peace and development in the country.
Mrs Lucille Hewlet Annan, the Greater Accra Regional Director NCCE, in her presentation said many countries had been destroyed because of election violence and misunderstanding amongst people.
She said Ghanaians should not allow what was happening in neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali as well as Nigeria to happen to destroy the country.
“If we are not careful and allow all these to happen in Ghana, there would be nowhere to run to, so there is no need resorting to violence with the smallest issue and allow peace and unity to prevail in our communities, during elections,” she said.
The Regional Director urged participants to be security-conscious and report any strange behaviours or characters to the security agencies for quick action.
She added that the presence of heads of institutions, the security, leaders of religious bodies, civil society organisations, youth groups, the traditional authority and political parties at the meeting attests to the fact that the Commission was bound to work with groups to put an end to violent extremism in the country Ghana.
The NCCE Regional Director said as Ghanaians we need to eschew violence and respect the rights of each other because there are a lot of bad people who are ready to trade in guns to people to kill.”
MrsAnann advised participants to educate their community members’ workplaces as well as churches and mosques on all they have learnt and urged them to always seek advice from the police before organising any public event to avoid violence or clashes with the police.
Superintendent Edward Kodjo Tetteh, Municipal Police Commander, Ghana Police Service, appealed to participants to cooperate with the police to help arrest suspected criminals in their communities. He said the police alone could not do it without help from the public.
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