By Philip Tengzu
Bagri, (UW/R), Nov. 20, GNA – The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has built the capacity of political party youth activists in Lawra to foster cohesion between party youth camps as part of strategies to prevent violent extremism in the municipality.
The engagement, which particularly targeted youth activists in border communities including the Bagri community, was also to build their resilience and empower them to resist any attempt by politicians to use them as agents to disrupt peace during the impending general election.
Speaking at a day’s capacity building workshop at Bagri, Mr Jesurun Ninge Mornah, the Lawra Municipal Director of NCCE, indicated that their decision to engage the youth activists at the border communities was due to their proximity to Burkina Faso, which had suffered insurgencies.
The Lawra Municipal Directorate of the NCCE organised the workshop as part of the Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) action in Ghana” project implemented by the NCCE with funding from the European Union (EU).
“Be very vigilant about the movement of people from the other side of the border so that you can detect any form of crime and report immediately to the security for attention.
Also, do not allow yourselves to be used by politicians to cause mayhem in society especially in this election season because any violence here can attract the attention of extremists,” he urged the youth.
He said political party youth activities were susceptible to being influenced to cause violence in this election period due to their subscription to certain political ideologies and their tendency to defend those ideologies and political party leaders.
Mr Mornah said that had made it necessary to regularly engage them on the need to value peace.
Mr Victor Nuworkpor, the Upper West Regional Director of the NCCE, appealed to the youth activists to take advantage of the engagement to equip themselves with the requisite knowledge to safeguard themselves and their communities against violence.
He also encouraged them to coexist peacefully despite their political differences to engender national cohesion for the development of the country.
Mr Debpuur Jacob of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), encouraged the participants to watch out for people who exhibited strange behaviours such as being extremely sober or extremely aggressive as those were signs of vulnerability to radicalisation.
Mr John Bedi, the Lawra Municipal Director of Human Rights and Administrative Justice, encouraged the youth to facilitate the formation of watch dog committees in their various communities in their bit to identify possible threats to the community for timely action.
The youth activists from the various political parties in the Bagri community, who attended the workshop, pledged to, among other things, lead the campaign against violent extremism in the community.
GNA