By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Paga (U/E), Sept 6, GNA – Selected officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), the Paga Sector Command in the Upper East Region, have received refresher training as part of efforts to boost operations and improve their relationship with civilians.
The officials were taken through legal framework of GIS, administrative laws, intelligence gathering, understanding violent extremism and observation and profiling.
They also studied information sharing and inter agency collaboration and how to improve security-civilian relationship.
The training, organised by the GIS, with support from the Catholic Relief Service Ghana (CRS Ghana) formed part of the second phase of the Prevention of Violent Extremism through Social Accountability (PoVETSA) project.
The PoVETSA II project is being implemented by the CRS Ghana in partnership with the National Peace Council with funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The project works with major stakeholders particularly the civilians and the security services to ensure peace and prevent violent extremism and terrorism.
Speaking at the training at Paga, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Robert Ubindam, Head of Operations, GIS, Paga Sector Commander, said as lead border management agency, it was imperative for its officials to be abreast with contemporary issues and how to respond to them.
“We need to let our officials understand the current trend when it comes to crime, threats of violent extremism from the Sahel and the legal regimes that we operate with, our mandate and any other issues of importance they need to know because they are the first liners when it comes to security management in the country at the borders”, he said.
According to DSI Ubindam, it was expected that the officials who were being trained would step down the training at their operational areas, adding that it would help to boost operations and improve their relationship with people who crossed the borders for various activities.
It would also improve their preparedness in terms of knowledge and intelligence gathering to respond to any spill-over activities of violent extremism from the Sahel.
DSI Jerry Kwadzo Attipoe, the Officer In-Charge of Navrongo Office, Paga Sector Command, observed that in recent times, there seemed to be a widening gap of lack of trust between the civilians and the security services and the training would help to address that challenge.
He identified knowledge gap as one of the reasons for the misunderstandings that often occurred between the civilians and the security services and added that ensuring security
required collective responsibility from all stakeholders and the need to appreciate each other’s mandate.
“By acquiring this knowledge, we think that our officers will be more tolerating to the civilians and understand that some of them do not know the law, that is why they are always a little bit resistant to some of the things that are opposed to them”, he said.
Ms Adelaide Yiriyelleh, PoVETSA Project Manager, CRS, said the project which begun in 2022 had worked with the GIS, the Paga Sector Command, to enhance their operations and their relationship with the civilians.
“We hope that there will be more engagements with them going forward for enhanced interaction between the GIS and the public” she said.
GNA