UE/R: FIGHTING CRIME IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY- POLICE COMMANDER

By Masahudu Jinkor

The Bolgatanga Municipal Police Commander, Supt Kwaku Ayepah has stated that though the Police Service has been mandated by the constitution to maintain law and order in the society, fighting crime successfully could only be achieved through shared responsibility by critical stakeholders. He advised residents of the Bolgatanga municipality to take their personal security very seriously by ensuring their homes remain hard targets for criminals who live amongst us. Supt Ayepah made the called during a day’s sensitization of artizans, representatives of out of school youth groups and that of youth associations on the Rule of Law and Fight Against Corruption. This they could do by reporting suspicious characters within their communities to the law enforcement agencies in a way to enhance efforts by the service in protecting lives and properties in the various localities.
Supt Ayepah quickly noted that those causing crimes were mostly few as compared to the masses in our communities thereby making the communities unsafe for everyone. “It is therefore the responsibility of all to ensure they report suspicious characters and strange happenings in their communities to the police” he said. This according to the commander among other efforts by community stakeholders would help bring commission of crime to the bearest minimum if not nip in the bud completely.
He expressed concern about the increasing number of moto theft within the municipality calling on all stakeholders to redirect their energies in fighting crime by assisting the law enforcement agencies in the fight against all manner of crimes at all levels.
Walking the over 50 participants on their rights and responsibilities in fighting corruption, Jonathan Adabre Atia, Executive Director of Development Research and Advocacy Centre, DRAC described corruption as an abused of entrusted power which affects all facets of the Ghanaian society as in education, health, employment, security recruitment, award of contracts among others which had denied the country of the needed development over the years. Mr.Atiah intimated that people with moral weaknesses and the fear of poverty were mostly associated with some form of corruption given the least opportunity to serve in any public capacity adding leadership corruption occured as a result of citizenship pressure in holding leadership accountable for their stewardship. He stated that the only way to fight corruption was for people to be changed agents appealing to government and its partners to resourced the National Commission for Civic Education, NCCE to effectively and efficiently carry out its mandate of educating the citizenry on their civic rights and responsibilities as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
Given an overview of the campaign, the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, NCCE, Mr. Jafar Omar Al-Sadiq stated that the campaign which was implemented by the NCCE in partnership with GIZ with funding support from the European Union aimed at equipping vulnerable groups especially out of school drop-out youth groups with practical knowledge on the Rule of Law, Civic Rights and Legal Frameworks such as the whistleblower Act which were ways of promoting transparency and accountability. Mr. Omar Al-Sadiq pledged his outfits continuos commitment in sensitizing the public on their civic rights and responsibilities calling on relevant stakeholders to support the move. According to him, the campaign forms part of a major project dubbed “Civic Engagements on the Rule of Law and the Fight Against Corruption”. He assured the public that more of such engagements should be expected in the near future.