Kpandai (N/R), Sept 29, GNA – Reverend Bruce Bagnam Dam, Kpandai District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has urged the youth in the district to collectively take responsibility for the security in their communities to guarantee the safety of everyone.
He said ensuring security in the district was shared responsibility and that everyone must be involved to avert any possible threats of violence in the area.
He made the call when the Kpandai District Directorate of the NCCE engaged selected influential youth groups in the area to build their capacities on how to prevent and manage violent extremism in the district.
The event held at Kpandai formed part of the Preventing Electoral Violence and Providing Security to the Northern Border Regions of Ghana project funded by the European Union to among others counter violent extremism in the country.
The engagement was to enhance participants’ understanding of peacebuilding mechanisms, community-based mechanisms for countering violent extremism, identifying early warning signals, community surveillance and basic community-based strategies for countering arms proliferation.
Participants were taken through peace-building mechanisms, community surveillance, awareness creation at workshop centres, possible signs of radicalism, neighbourhood watch or community patrol and what to do during a possible attack.
The resource persons included the Kpandai District Police Commander and a representative from the Clergy in the district.
Reverend Dam cited recent activities of the secessionist group in the Volta Region and extremist groups in neighbouring Burkina Faso among others as examples of acts, which were classified as violent extremism.
He advised participants to desist from engaging in activities, that could jeopardise the peace and stability in their communities.
He further advised them to report individuals or groups of individuals suspected to be violent extremists to the security agencies for immediate action.
At the end of the engagement, the participants came out with a communique calling on the government to stop rituals shown on television stations, purporting to make people rich.
They also committed to reporting individuals or groups of individuals with suspected characters to the security agencies for immediate action to be taken against them.
GNA