Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has urged citizens to inform State security and intelligence agencies about the hideouts of terrorists.
“The support of the citizenry in informing security agencies on happenings in their localities where the terrorists were likely to hide and commit their atrocious crimes, significantly reduces the threat of an attack in Ghana.”
He assured the public that the Ministry, together with the various security agencies was working tirelessly to protect citizens against a terrorist attacks and safeguard the peace and stability of the country.
Mr Kan-Dapaah made the comments during the outdooring of the Ministry’s flagship programme dubbed, “See Something, Say Something” campaign to sensitise the citizenry to an active role in protecting the peace and stability of the State.
It would also empower Ghanaians to be more conscious about their own security and enhance their relationship with State Security Authorities.
He said the campaign had always formed a key part of the country’s National Framework for Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism.
However, the timing of its rollout was informed by the need to institute more preventative measures in view of recent events in the West African sub-region.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said ”terrorism, as perpetrated in the sub-region and the Sahel, had become highly unconventional and largely asymmetric and had evolved to a point where over-reliance on only conventional tactics and traditional means of combating the threat could prove ineffective”.
The National Security Minister reiterated that terrorist groups who continued to wreak havoc in neighbouring countries came in all shapes and forms and ”many of them blended seamlessly into their target societies, thus making their identification and subsequent arrests by State security and intelligence agencies a difficult endeavour”.
