On Monday July 15, 2024, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) held a Police-Community Dialogue to foster trust and positive relationships between the Ghana Police Service and the people of Canteen Electoral Area (CEA).
The dialogue session which was held at the Sun Flash Community Center at Canteen, was sponsored by the European Union (EU) under the “Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism Action (PCVE)” initiative.
Mohammed Ibrahim, the NCCE Municipal Director for the West Gonja Municipality in a welcome address stressed on the need for community collaboration with the Ghana Police Service and other security services to prevent violent extremism and create a more safer and harmonious community relationship with all the security services. He noted the mandate of the NCCE is to sensitize and educate the citizenry about their rights and responsibilities as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. And said it’s important to engage the community to foster relationship with the police service because crime fighting is a share responsibility. He appealed to community members to actively participate in the fight against Violent Extremism, countering terrorism, corruption, and crime.
Mohammed Ibrahim added that the Police-civilian relationships can be described as two sides of the coin. The civilians need the police to ensure internal security and the police need civilians to carry out their mandate without hindrance.
The Police play crucial role as the primary agent of public security on behalf of the state, making them the most commonly encountered security providers in people’s everyday lives. The Ghana Police play a significant role in maintaining law and order and ensuring internal security and safety.
The Savannah regional NCCE Director, Issaka Zitor appealed to community members to collaborate with the police for criminal investigations to enhance overall safety for both officers and civilians.
He noted that Violent Extremism is becoming problematic for leaders and citizens across West Africa and said we collectively need to run it down.
Issaka Zitor added that everyone in the community is a potential Violent Extremist and so all of us must be careful how we associate ourselves with groups and people with restricted stands on ideologies or religious or political situations.
He noted that Both the PUSH and PULL factors of Violent Extremism are with us, and so we should work together devoid of divisions and report any suspicious characters to the community leaders or security agencies.
He disclosed that Savannah region has just two percent (2%) of security staff to provide security to the population in the region and therefore, we all need to closely work with the security to create good environment for the area.
Feed the police with information to prevent any possible Violent Extremism because information sharing is vital for the safety of all.
He appealed to the police to equally hold the identity of informants secret so as not to put their lives at risk. We should all work together to build trust, foster collaboration, and improve relationships to combat violence, crime, and extremism. Many police departments and community organizations are already working effectively together to keep peace, he emphasized.
The West Gonja Municipal Police Commander, ASP Charles Aniagye, urged communities to see the police as public servants and to help understand policing procedures and roles, thereby reducing fear and misconceptions. The people should trust and work with the police to kill mistrust.
The fear that the police would expose the identity of individuals who provide information to them. It is a serious professional misconduct to disclose the identity of any informant. Officers caught in such acts will be dealt with severely. We are here to keep security, to protect lives and properties, so help us with relevant information to keep the area safe.
Collaborating with community members is one of the best ways to keep security and alleviate fears and mistrust, promoting unity and shared responsibility between the police and community members, this can lead to timely interventions and prevent complementary crimes, he added.
The dialogue was attended by traditional leaders, youth groups, women groups, community members, security agencies, among other participants.
The Municipal manager of the National Ambulance Service, AEMT Gideon Antwi explained that the people have a key role to play by assisting the security agencies to curb crime around their communities. He assured the availability of security services to partner communities to fight crime and Violent Extremism.
The chiefs and people of the area commended NCCE and the security for the timely engagement and called for more of such. Concerns that were raised by participants got duly clarified by the security service.
Abdulai Zulkaninu/padfm.com.gh
