Security Personnel undergoing training at the Counter Terrorism Enachment Concentration Camp at Akaa in the Okere District of the Eastern region have begun a two-day community outreach programme at five border towns in the Eastern Region.
The outreach programme is aimed at educating the public on how to report criminal activities in their localities as well as gathering intelligence on terrorists threats within the areas.
Participants in the training programme include 250 personnel from the Ghana Immigration Service, 115 personnel from the Ghana Police Service and 10 personnel from the Ghana Ambulance Service.
At a debriefing parade, the Commanding Officer of the Counter Terrorism Enhancement Concentration Camp, Chief Superintendent Raymond Wejom Adofiem, said towns selected for the outreach programme are Asesewa, Apirede, Akaten, Adukrom and Somanya.
According to him, the programme is part of their counter terrorism, community integrated anti- violence advocacy outreach programme.
“As part of their higher risk operational survival in border and public space protection training, security personnel are sent to the villages and town where foreign nationals are mostly residing to gather intelligence as part of crime fighting.”
“You are to engage, protect and educate the people to believe and accept the role of policing and also understand their watchdog roles,” he told the participants.
Chief Supt. Adofiem urged communities and opinion leaders to cooperate with the security personnel as they discharge their duties, saying “feel free to give out information to the security personnel as they approach your communities and together we shall protect our country and communities from any form of attacks,” he advised.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey