Address trust deficit between police and citizens to fight extremism – NCCE

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has said there is an urgent to address the seemingly 'trust deficit' between the Ghana Police Service and citizens to curb any spillover of activities of violent extremism.According to Ms Alice Ndego, the Bongo District Director of the Commission, effective collaboration between the security services, particularly the police and citizens was crucial to maintaining law and order.However, she said, in recent times there seemed to exist a significant trust gap between the communities and the police which was not good in promoting peace and fighting crime considering the violent extremism threats the country was currently facing.Ms Ndego made these observations during a dialogue session organised by the NCCE for the Bongo community and the police as part of strategies to enhance trust and cooperation between the security services particularly the police and the community to fight crime, particularly violent extremism.It also created a conducive platform f or the stakeholders to enhance their knowledge on the operations of the violent extremists, challenges in fighting crime and how they could play critical roles in supporting the security services to curb any spillover.It was organised under the auspices of a European Union-supported project dubbed 'Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) Action in the Northern Regions of Ghana and it brought together chiefs, elders, community leaders, women and youth, security services and school children among others.She said the country was preparing for the major election in December and the need to stay united to ensure that fertile grounds were not created for extremists to exploit and destabilise the country is key.'The increasing nature of activities of extremists in neighbouring countries is a threat to Ghana's security as elections are approaching. The relationship between the police and the community is critical in fostering a cooperative environment essential for identifying and mitigating extremis t threats.'The police are peace officers; their role is to maintain law and order and are in the community to serve and to protect us and not to oppress us. Therefore, the community and the police are to work as partners in ensuring peace and security. I urge community members to cooperate with the police, provide them with information of suspicious characters, crimes, misconduct etc. for prompt action,' she added.Detective Inspector David Dekli Osae, Crime Officer, Crime Investigation Department, Bongo Police Command, said fighting crime required the collective responsibility of all and the police always worked to make friends with the community and urged the residents to support the activities of the police to maintain peace and stability.'If you don't help us with relevant information, we will not be able to fight crime in your communities, so help us to keep your communities safe,' he said.Mr Lawson Kodjoe Tsatsu, Bongo District Director of the National Investigation Bureau (NIB), said violent ext remists usually target the youth to recruit them to carry out their activities and urged the youth to desist attempts to be recruited to destabilise the country.Source: Ghana News Agency