Tumu, (UWR)-Ghana, April 11, GNA – Mr Fuseini Yakubu Batong, the Sissala East Municipal Chief Executive has tasked a newly inaugurated Community Anti-Violence Committee members to be the “eyes and ears” of the community.
The MCE told the members to report cases of violence to the security agencies as and when they occurred.
He said they should not take the current peace and security for granted as some districts and countries used most of their revenue to pay for the peace they were enjoying.
Mr Batong gave the advice during a one-day training workshop organised for 100 selected young people from 20 communities in the Sissala East and West Districts by Sildep with support from Star Ghana.
He commended Sildep and Star Ghana Foundation for the strategic intervention meant to support the efforts of the Assembly and the Municipal Security Committee (MUSEC) to maintain security in the municipality and border communities.
Mr Batong reminded the people that “We cannot wait to need peace before we start seeking peace.”
“The objective of the training is to strengthen the capacity of these young people so that they can prevent, respond and report any threats of violence activities along the border communities in the two project Districts”, Mr Ibrahim Wasor, the Project Manager of Sildep, said.
He said the project was a one-year intervention, where the training was focused on three key areas – General knowledge of the principles and operations of Violence Extremists, Intelligence gathering, and Reporting.
Superintendent Kumpe Dieku Gbele, the Sissala East Municipal Police Commander, took participants through the general knowledge of the operations of the violent extremists, highlighting the early warning signal.
He described violent extremism as the beliefs and actions of people who support or use violence to achieve ideological, religious beliefs, or political goals, which included terrorism and other forms of politically motivated and communal violence.
He warned against acts that usually start small and if not controlled could escalate into bigger situations.
DSI William Addai of the Ghana Immigration Service, Sissala East, took the members through intelligence gathering.
He explained Intelligence as an objective collection of information, subject to evaluation, analysis, interrogation, and interpretation for operational value, which serves as a guide to decision and policymaking.
He noted that intelligence gathering was essential to border security as exposed the threats posed by individuals, groups, and organisations to the nation and made room for the appropriate measures to be deployed to prevent such threats.
“Collection and sharing of timely intelligence are critical to violence prevention in the country,” DSI Addai said.
In an earlier meeting in Gwollu, Mr. Alhassan Kamara, the District Coordinating Director remarked that the participants were carefully selected by their communities to help curb violent extremism.
He warned them that the training was not for them to go and start behaving like the Police or other security officers and start making arrests.
