One hundred and ninety one personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and Ghana Police Service (GPS) have completed a three-week intensive counter terrorism training in Huhunya in the Eastern Region.
The purpose of the first ever joint training in counter terrorism, codenamed High Risk Operation Survival, was to enhance the combat fitness, weapon handling, shooting skills, willpower, and speed among others, of participants.
As part of the training, the participants undertook lessons in Taekwondo (unarmed combat), advance weapon and firing techniques, tactical progression, vehicle search, and crowd control. The rest are mountaineering, navigation exercise and rapid-response and rescue operations on land and in water.
The Head of Border Management, Commissioner of Immigration (COI) Isaac Owusu Mensah who addressed the personnel at a closing ceremony on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI) commended participants for their determination, discipline and display of professionalism throughout the training.
He noted that the once peaceful West African sub region was gradually being consumed by terrorism and terrorist-related activities, and that; Ghana could only hold itself in readiness to curb any terrorist attack. “The training for the two security services is really timely” he added.
COI Mensah reiterated the commitment of management of GIS to decentralize the newly formed Rapid Response Unit across the regional commands to enable it respond quickly at any possible terror attack at the frontiers.
He expressed gratitude to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Police Command for the training given to officers of the GIS.
On his part, the Director-General of Operations of the Police Service, COP/Mr. Alex Mensah who spoke on behalf of the IGP urged the personnel to be alert, creative and analytical in confronting the menace of modern day crime that kept changing. “You are going out to serve a highly critical public that is expecting more innovative ways of handling security,” he added.
He admonished them to be disciplined at all times, and asked them to read and inculcate in themselves the principles outlined in the Service Instructions.