By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Jan. 27, GNA – The five Regional Peace Councils and the five Regional Houses of Chiefs in the northern part of the country have taken delivery of various items to support their operations towards sustained peace and security in the area.
The items estimated at GH¢232,975.00 included eight motorbikes, 48 conference chairs, three eight-seater conference tables, eight swivel chairs, nine wooden cabinets, six office desks, two desktop computers, a laptop, a canon printer and a safe.
They were donated by COGINTA Ghana as part of the Prevention of Electoral Violence and Providing Security to the Northern Border Regions of Ghana (NORPREVSEC) programme, which is funded by the European Union.
This was the second batch donation of logistical support to the five Regional Peace Councils and the five Regional Houses of Chiefs (Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West Regions) to complement the capacity building efforts of COGINTA.
Father Clement Aapengnuo, Team Leader, NORPREVSEC, COGINTA Ghana, who handed over the items to the representatives of the beneficiary institutions in Tamale, said it was to support them to continue to contribute to sustainable peace and cohesion in the five regions.
The need to maintain peace, is eminent in the five border regions of the country and the West African sub-region at large.
While Ghana’s democracy is touted globally as a country peaceful for decades, one of the key security concerns is the prevention of violent extremism considering the increased disturbances within the sub-region.
Conscious of the fact that terrorism can emerge from local conflicts, the NORPREVSEC programme has been designed to build resilience of local communities by creating awareness, empowering peace structures, and strengthening intelligence gathering.
Father Aapengnuo said “COGINTA Ghana, through the NORPREVSEC programme, has built the capacities of the Regional Houses of Chiefs and Regional Peace Councils through logistical support and training in Alternative Dispute Resolution, the Chieftaincy Act and Succession and the New Land Act. 600 chiefs and queen mothers and council members will benefit from these trainings. 400 chiefs and queen mothers have already benefitted from these trainings.”
He said: “This is contributing towards promoting good and inclusive governance by contributing directly to resilience and security in Ghana.
“Specifically, under the programme, we aim to better equip key Government and non-Government actors in their joint and coordinated efforts to sustain peace to prevent pre-and post-electoral violence, also against women and girls and; to contain the rise of violent extremism through enhancing their capacities in early warning, conflict resolution, countering terrorism and fight against transnational organised crime, with respect to rule of law and human rights.”
Mr Emmanuel Danyomah, Executive Secretary of the Upper West Regional Peace Council expressed gratitude to COGINTA Ghana for the gesture saying the support from COGINTA over the years had greatly enhanced the work of the Regional Peace Councils in the five regions.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, Registrar, North East Regional House of Chiefs lauded the support assuring that the items would be put to good use.
The COGINTA is an independent non-governmental, apolitical, and areligious organisation that provides technical assistance on justice and security sector governance, police reform and community-oriented policing in fragile and conflict affected countries.
Its objective is to support host-governments in building stronger justice and security institutions based on the principles of rule of law, and to improve the effectiveness of civilian law enforcement organisations to address the negative effects of violence and criminality on their prospect for peace, development, and social cohesion.
The COGINTA has headquarters in Geneva and field representations in Brussels, Chad, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and now in Ghana.
GNA