Security Services urged to respect the Constitution

Accra, May 4, GNA - The Security Services were on Tuesday urged to respect the authority structure and operate within the rules of the land to ensure national stability within the constitutional context. Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Programme Officer of the National Governance Programme, said this in Accra when he addressed members of the Ghana Immigration Services (GIS) on "National Integration Through Tolerance - The Role Of Security Services" as part of the ongoing Fourth National Constitution Week celebrations, which ends on Tuesday.

He said different sections of the security forces had specific professional roles in ensuring national security "but all the forces have to keep in mind that the specialist professional role goes to add to the efforts of other sectors of the society".

Mr Asamoa, who spoke against the use of strikes as the only alternative to redress, said: "The solution is not in imposing the brand of order peculiar to the services on the rest of the society. "Rather, the Services must close ranks behind the constitutional arrangements and serve as pillars of stability against which the Constitution ultimately rests."

This, he said, would ensure that discipline in the Services became the strength of entire society.

He said the Security Services should see themselves as an integral part of the national agenda with clearly ordered professional responsibilities.

Mr Albert Sam, a Public Affairs Officer of NCCE, called on the Security Services to ensure that there was stability and peace before, during and after Election 2004.

Mrs Elizabeth Agyei, Director of GIS, who presided, said Security Services condemned the ill treatment some foreigners meted out to some Ghanaians adding: "We will ensure that foreigners abided by the rules and regulations of the land".

She blamed Ghanaians for over exhibiting the Ghanaian hospitality explaining that "this has been the main reason we are sometimes misused by these foreigners".