By Godfred A. Polkuu
Pusiga (U/E), July 12, GNA – The Ministry of National Security says its campaign‘If you see something, say something’ is not to cause fear and panic among the citizens.
It called on citizens to be interested in what happened in their communities and emphasised that the campaign was not to cause fear and panic but intended to alert the security services on any suspicious activities in communities, especially at border towns, for action.
Mrs Akosua Ntim-Sekyere, the Head of Client Service at the Ministry, who led a team of officers on a three-day sensitization campaign tour at border towns in the Upper East Region, noted that the campaign was to encourage citizens to report suspicious activities or characters in their communities but not to cause any fear or panic.
The team, on the first day of the exercise, engaged Chiefs, opinion leaders, leaderships of youth groups and Associations at Pusiga, Kulungugu and Zebilla to sensitize them on the need to report suspicious characters to security agencies or opinion leaders for action.
She said the campaign was intended to make Ghanaians more vigilant and security conscious and insisted that “Is about time we took things around us seriously and be vigilant to be able to pick suspicious characters that could potentially compromise our security.”
Mrs Ntim-Sekyere urged residents of Pusiga to be interested in activities of individuals in the area, and further encouraged them to call 999, a toll-free number, and report any suspicious activities or persons in their communities for action.
She expressed the Ministry’s concern about prank calls from some members of the public, and appealed to citizens to desist from such practices,
“The call centre works 24/7 effectively, so there is no point calling to find out whether the centre is operational or otherwise.
“The whole idea is for people to report suspicious activities, so if you call without any valid report, it means you will be preventing some other person, because the calls are usually queued. So, we will plead with Ghanaians to desist from pranking,” she said.
Officials of the Ministry as part of the campaign, shared stickers with the ‘If you see something, say something’ campaign message with the toll-free number on it to members of the public, and posted same at vantage points to help spread the message.
Some opinion leaders, who shared their views on the initiative with the Ghana News Agency after the campaign at Pusiga, commended government for the move and pledged to play their role as leaders in the community, to achieve the purpose of the campaign.
Mr Alale Baba Atibilla, an opinion leader, said “This initiative by government is commendable. This District shares borders with two different countries, and so the see something, say something campaign will water down threats of persons who enter the country through this District to cause trouble.”
He urged officials of the Ministry to vigorously embark on the campaign at the community level, apart from using the media, to help convey the message to every individual not only at border towns, but across the Region.
Another opinion leader, Madam Monica Mbatiig Apoanaba, noted that the Pusiga District shared borders with Burkina Faso and Togo, and with threats of violent extremists, the move by the Ministry was on point.
She said they would spread the campaign across the district to ensure residents were well informed on their role to be security conscious and volunteer creditable information to security agencies to help government protect its citizens.
GNA