Ghanaian security forces asked to be ever ready for terrorist attack

“Ghana should be ready for any terrorist attack,” unusually sounded the chorus on TV3’s New Day on Saturday. It was probably the first time panelists on the show sang with one voice.

The discussion was on the recent terror alert issued by the Canadian and British governments to their nationals. Though it turned out to be a false alarm, the panelists said Ghana cannot take such an alert, albeit untrue, lightly.

National Democratic Congress’ representative on the programme, Abraham Amaliba, said given recent attacks in Ghana’s neighbouring countries – precisely Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso – the country needs no telling to put measures in place to fight such an attack. “I think that our government should be telling us how to act or behave in the face of terrorist attack,” he said.

Convention People’s Party’s Kwame Jantuah emphasized the need not to turn a blind eye on internal terrorists aside external ones. He advocated the education of all the citizens including school children on what to do in the face of terrorist attacks.

He even recommended simulation exercises by the security agencies to keep the populace alert. The legal practitioner maintained that “whether it is an alert [or] whether it is not an alert, we should be ready.”

New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Akwapim South Constituency Osei Bonsu Amoah said government cannot wait for alerts from their foreign counterparts before they take any action. According to him, the intelligence agencies should always be on the lookout for signals.