By Rosemary Wayo
Tamale, June 22, GNA – Colonel Anorph Banabas Akanbong, Director of Training at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has urged security officers to apply expertise to manage the 2024 general election.
He encouraged personnel, who completed a five-day course on electoral violence trends and election management, to apply the knowledge gained to preempt perceived violence situations before, during and after the elections.
He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Electoral Violence and Security (EVS) course in Tamale, organised by the KAIPTC with support from the German Foreign Ministry.
The course formed part of the KAIPTC’s endevours to promote peace and security in West Africa, especially in election years.
It brought together command level personnel of the various security services in the Northern Region, who were equipped to understand the roles of each service in policing an election.
Participants received certificates acknowledging completion of the EVS course.
Colonel Akanbong congratulated participants for completing the first session of the series on EVS and commended them for exhibiting great sense of devotion and intelligence during the training.
He said: “In all the spheres of learning, it is satisfying to know that you were all exemplary in your contributions to the discourse, which is intended to make our democracy even stronger.”
He further commended the Ghana Police Service as the lead agency of the Election Security Task Force, the German Government and relevant stakeholders for their respective roles in making the training a success.
Ms Pauline Okkens, German Political Advisor to Ghana, said the EVS course was to aid the country’s security apparatus in devising strategies to mitigate electoral violence, adding that it had trained over 300 personnel in three series.
She said the German Government, since 2002, had partnered the KAIPTC to contribute to peace and security in Ghana particularly in the sub-region in several ways.
She stated that with funding from the German Government, KAIPTC had conducted courses such as the Police Middle Management, Security Sector Reform and others for security personnel across the sub-region and beyond.
Ms Okkens said the challenges of failed states stemmed from factors like weak state structures that hindered effective systems, adding “The German Government’s peacebuilding efforts are focused on assisting the reformation of the security sector of these countries.”
Colonel Francis Kojo Bannerman, Command Operations Officer of the Northern Command, Ghana Armed Forces, who gave a reflection of the EVS course on behalf of all participants, said the course involved the discussion of intriguing modules that realized a simulation exercise based on realistic scenarios.
He said knowledge acquired as well as experiences shared during different sessions of the course had boosted personnel’s preparedness for the 2024 general election.
He expressed gratitude to the German Government for sponsoring the course, and to the Commandant and staff of the KAIPTC for the opportunity.
GNA