Resource security services to prevent terrorism – MP advises government

The Member of Parliament for Mion Constituency in the Northern Region has charged the government to adequately resource the security services in the country to ward off any possible terrorism.

This, Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said, should take precedence over government’s “vindictive posture” on the former government appointees.

“Instead of political vendetta and investigating people unnecessarily, we should channel our efforts in resourcing the security services,” he advised.

“We must also be investing in our security because our security at public place are so lose and porous. There were some visibilities at the malls and it has vanished. Go to the West Hills Mall and Accra Mall. We all use the airport and malls, and the security there is porous and lose”, the MP explained.

The Mion MP was commenting on the alert by the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canadian governments to its citizens travelling to Ghana on possible terror attack.

The UK, for instance, posted Thursday, August 3, 2017, on its website: “terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Ghana. While there have been no recent attacks in Ghana, terrorist groups in West Africa have demonstrated their capability and intent by mounting attacks in 2015 and 2016 in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, targeting beach resorts, hotels, cafes and restaurants visited by foreigners”.

They advised all foreign nationals to always carry a copy of their passports and other documents on them whilst they keep the original somewhere safe.

Reacting to the issue on TV3 New Day Friday hosted by Johnnie Hughes, Mr Abdul-Aziz said “terrorism has become a big issue. It is a major challenge in the world and we should also warn our nationals travelling to other countries”.

He said, “we also have a duty to ensure the integrity of our country because it can destroy Ghana’s image”.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Eric Twum, added “in as much as we have challenges, we can’t discount the importance of the security agencies…Do we have to change some of the things that they do? Do we need to resource them? Yes”.

This, Mr Twum said, is an issue that should not be politicised.

“We shouldn’t be thinking we are different from the other neighbouring countries. We should make sure the security at crowded places are tight and as individuals, we need to be able to play our roles”.

He cautioned, “if there are places people need to assemble, the police must know. We need to know where fire exits are and it is important that we start learning some of these things”.

The Founder of the Youth Enterprise Development Network, Kasise Ricky Peprah, pointed out: “It is not going to take these warnings to know the way terrorism has manifested itself in neighbouring countries.

It should not be a matter for us to dramatize and that should not be a matter for us to also ignore.”

He said, “terrorism does not discriminate and this is one issue our politicians should not be divided”.