Security personnel must be disciplined and professional - Minister

Dr Hafiz Bin-Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister, has called on security agents in the Region to be disciplined and professional in the discharge of their duties to rationalize the public confidence reposed in them.

He urged the personnel to always shield the identity of informants in order not to put their lives in danger by blowing their cover.

“When the identities of informants are exposed to the criminals, their lives would be put in danger and due to that, people feel reluctant to report criminals in the society for fear of their identities being exposed,” he said.

Dr Bin-Salih was speaking during his maiden Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) meeting, this year, as the new Upper West Regional Minister following the reassignment of Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan.

A team from the National Security Ministry briefed the RCC members comprising heads of departments, agencies, municipal and district chief executives as well as key stakeholders about how to counter violent extremism.

This followed reports that recent clamp down on suspected terrorist bases by the gendarmerie and coalition forces in Burkina Faso led to some of the suspects crossing into Ghana.

Dr Bin-Salih said Ghana had been confronted with security threats like armed robbery and vigilantism, prompting the Government to equip its security agencies and establishing Counter-Terrorism Unit.

The steps taken by government, he said, had reduced the crime rate considerably despite pockets of robbery and kidnapping reports but added that a concerted effort was needed to sustain the gains.

“As a people, we need to be more nationalistic and vigilante by reporting all criminals we are harbouring or shielding in our communities to the appropriate security agencies to bring them to book,” he said.

He said due to inadequate security personnel and logistical constraints, government had decided to recruit more personnel in all sectors and equip them, especially vehicles and other logistics for the Ghana Police Service, to carry out their duties effectively.