Security agencies tasked to ensure legitimacy of elections

Wa, May 12, GNA - The Upper West Regional Police Crime Officer, Superintendent of Police Wisdom Lavoe, has called on security agencies to always ensure the legitimacy of elections. He said the security agencies must ensure that election processes were carried out as fairly as possible, minimising reaction and agitation from losers. This aspect, he said, had been challenging and as such eroding confidence in the security agencies should be avoided as it helps create fertile grounds for selfish politicians to throw their countries into turmoil. He was speaking on: "The role of the security agencies in advancing democracy in Ghana: Prospects and challenges" to mark constitution week on Tuesday.

Mr Lavoe said understanding elections and the electoral processes were necessary to help reduce the incidence of violence and the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanism would decrease stress on security agencies. He suggested to the public affairs directorates of security agencies and non-governmental organisations interested in security issues to come together and formulate joint programmes that would foster sister/agency relations.

Mr Lavoe said relations between the public and the security agencies had not been cordial because the security sector had been characterised by myths as if it was a sole preserve of the personnel. The effect is the low level of co-operation among them, thereby making the work difficult and people suffering in silence due to ignorance. Another deficiency in the security sector was the political interference. He said the security of the nation was a shared responsibility among the government, the security agencies and the public. "In terms of logistics, more efforts are required and apart from their inadequacy, they are also obsolete and no more relevant to the current efforts in security operations", Mr Lavoe said.

On the part of human resource development, he said, the security sector was not corresponding with the changing trends, especially in the area of Information and Communication Technology, its usage was low among personnel. The result is that criminals at times are a step ahead of the security agencies. The Upper West Regional Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Joseph K. Ahinsah, said the Ghana National Fire Service has logistics challenges making its operations ineffective. He mentioned fire appliances, official vehicles and operational equipment as some of the logistics that were inadequate and needed government's attention.

"For instance, in the entire region, only three appliances are working with two of them badly leaking and residential accommodation for personnel is challenging", he said. He said out of the seven hydrants in the Wa Municipality, only one is serviceable while the rest of the districts could not boast of a single hydrant, making fire fighting difficult as they had to rely on Water Company for supply of water.