Accra, May 12, GNA - Government has tasked all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to name all streets in their areas before the end this year, Vice President John Dramani Mahama has annouced.

The naming, he said would facilitate the work of crime fighters to respond to distress calls and to give the Police and the Military the geographical descriptions of areas under attack.

The Vice President announced this when members of Creative Consult, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), engaged in crime fighting, called on=

him at the Osu Castle in Accra, to present DVD copies of crime combat ser= ies produced by the NGO and telecast on Ghana Television (GTV).

Creative Consult has for some time now been educating people on GTV against crime and the ways by which people could avoid the activities of criminals.

Vice President Mahama attributed the rise in criminal activities in some parts of the country to lack of knowledge of the areas and gave the assurance that crime would be reduced to the barest minimum with the introduction of the street naming.

He pledged that government would equip crime fighters with logistics= to enable them to perform their duties effectively.

The Vice President said plans were underway to create an emergency information office for the Police to provide information to patrol teams to enable them to quickly move to crime spots.

Mr. Andy Nana Opoku, Creative Director of the NGO, appealed to government to support the group to enable it to televise their educationa= l programmes on the TV stations.

He explained that the NGO's previous series were sponsored by the German government but this would cease and the group would have to strugg= le to televise its programmes. Mr. Opoku said government alone could not combat crime and the NGO's intervention was to complement efforts of security agencies and called on=

philanthropists and organizations to support the group enable it to achie= ve its objectives. He said that the NGO's TV programmes had helped in reducing armed robbery, drug and human trafficking and appealed to its partners to intensify their roles in combating crime. Deputy Superintendent of Police Kwesi Ofori, Public Relations Director= of Ghana Police Service, commended the NGO for their role in fighting crime.