TEERE, a Non-governmental organization domiciled in the Upper East Region has organized capacity training and establishment of communication channels workshop for Security Agencies and Assembly Members in the Bongo District.
The purpose of the training was to foster a relationship building and establishment of proper communication channels to aid reporting of issues of crime suspicions and violence.
In partnership with COGINTA, with funding support from the European Union, TEERE engaged the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Ghana Police Service as facilitating bodies to sensitize Assembly Members on the importance of having an effective communication system in fighting crime especially violence extremism in the area.
COGINTA under it’s NORPREVSEC program aims at providing technical assistance on justice and security sector governance, police reform and community-oriented policing in fragile and conflict affected countries.
It’s objective is to support host-governments in building stronger justice and security institutions based on the principles of rule of law, and to improve the effectiveness of civilian law enforcement organizations to address the negative effects of violence and criminality on their prospect for peace, development and social cohesion.
Speaking to the media, the Bongo District Director of NCCE, Madam Alice Ndego admonished Assembly Members to learn to live peacefully and eschew ethnic violence, since it only retards progress.
She said, “Once a tribe is not part of them, they want to discriminate against them. Once the person is in your community, he/she is part and parcel of you. We want the assembly members to let their community members know and understand that, living together peacefully within the community level is what we are supposed to do else, we are creating problems for ourselves”.
She however urged the assembly members to help sensitize their community members in their respective electoral areas, on proper ways of dealing with violence extremism, especially the right security communication channels in reporting same.
The Station Officer of the Bongo Police Station, Chief Inspector Adetarima Maxwell expressed satisfaction for TEERE’s initiative to engage relevant stakeholders in dealing with communication gaps in crime and violence reporting.
He noted that, “The engagement was Nationalistic, and has revealed how to coexist with neighbors”
