Security issues are issues for all – Minister

The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, has appealed to people in the region not to consider issues of security as a domain of the security agencies alone.

He said the people must put up a sustained effort to cooperate with the security agencies through the volunteering of information and tip-offs for intelligence gathering to ensure the maintenance of peace.

Dr Bin Salih who appealed at the second session of the Regional Coordinating Council’s meeting in Wa urged traditional authorities, especially the Judicial Committee of the Region’s House of Chiefs to focus on addressing all the nine chieftaincy petitions and land disputes brought before the House and other court cases amicably to sustain the peace in the communities.

“The chieftaincy and land disputes that had plagued the region for some time now must be resolved as quickly as possible to help safeguard the prevailing peace in the region”, he said.

He said the government and the National Security had not relented in their efforts to support the security agencies to fight terrorism and other security-related issues in the region and announced that the government through the National Security had supplied two pickup vehicles and 45 motorcycles to be presented to some security agencies for effective operations in the region.

He lauded the support but said because of the porous and vast nature of the borders, there was a need to provide droves and scanners to help with intelligence gathering and the detection of the movement of illicit drugs across the borders.

The Daffiama Naa, Naa Dikomwine Domalae, President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs gave the assurance that the Judicial Committee of the House would hasten action to dispose of impending cases appropriately to ensure peace.

He appealed to municipal and district assemblies to support the Judicial Committee financially to deal with cases emanating from their jurisdictions for peace to prevail.

The Principal State Attorney, Lawyer Saeed Abdul Shakur appealed to the various district assemblies to set up District Courts for justice delivery.

He explained that without the district courts, justice delivery would be hampered saying, “the district court is the fundamental starting point for justice processes”.