Extremists, Jihadists target 2024 polls? - NCCE picks signals of attempts to recruit youth to mar elections

The Talensi District Director for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Dorcas Atia, has urged the youth to resist any attempts by extremist and Jihadist groups to engage them in acts that will mar the 2024 general election.

She said that as the country had less than a month to go for the crucial polls, the NCCE and other institutions had picked signals of Islamist groups doing everything possible to recruit young people in border communities in Ghana.

Ms Atia was addressing some select youth activ­ists at Tongo, capital of the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.

The engagement formed part of activities being undertaken by the organisation to calm the ‘height­ened political temperature’ ahead of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

She indicated that the objective of the pro­gramme was in alignment with the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) project, which was supported by the European Union (EU).

The programme, she said, would instil in the youth a deep comprehension of the negative con­sequences of involvement with violent extremist groups and their associated thuggish acts.

Ms. Atia emphasised that it was vital to recognise the significant threat that violent extremism posed to global security and societal harmony and that the country would be treading on dangerous ground if the youth were lured to patronise the activities of the Jihadists.

“In light of these challenges, this engagement programme serves as a crucial platform for fos­tering a sense of unity, belonging, and patriotism among our youth.

“By social cohesion, peace and tolerance, we aim to equip our young individuals with the necessary tools to recognise and resist the dangers of violent extremism”, she stressed.

She, however, used the platform to admonish the youth to strategise and position themselves to counter online radicalisation and misinformation.

The Chief of Gaare, Naab Mwarebilsong Naneeteng, who chaired the engagement meeting, advised the youth to be ambassadors of peace.

According to him, the youth had a huge respon­sibility in helping to maintain peace ahead of this year’s encounter, touting that the influence they wielded in the society was immeasurable.

Meanwhile, the Upper East Regional Director for the NCCE, James Abdulai Ayaaba, disclosed that the organisation, through funding from the EU, had covered a lot of communities at the borders to engage the youth on the need to embrace before, during and after the December polls.

He said the youth in those communities had also been sensitised to rejecting all forms of inducement from the Islamist groups, explaining that the acts of the latter were detrimental to the prospects of the country.

The President of the Talensi Rock Youth Associ­ation, Rockson Batamme Bukari, lauded the NCCE and its partners for engaging the youth to embrace peace and desist from indulging in acts that were tanta­mount to derailing the peace of the country.

He pledged that the youth in the area desired a peaceful election and would not bow to pressure from any political party or individual to foment trouble.