WANEP worried about possible terrorist attack in Ghana

The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Ghana) has warned Ghana not to

relax its security vigilance, especially about the Al-Shabab terrorist attack in Kenya in which a prominent Ghanaian died and not to down play two security alerts by the United Kingdom and United States.



It said both countries raised security concerns about the likelihood of a terror

attack in Ghana and wondered whether the national security apparatus was monitoring the situation enough and whether it was capable to counter and reduce the number of vulnerabilities from any such attacks.



These were contained in a press statement issued in Tamale on Wednesday and signed by Mr Isaac Bayor, National Network Coordinator of WANEP, and copied to the Ghana News Agency as part of the Network’s third quarter report from July to September 2013.

The report, which was in four thematic areas, showed that armed attack was the most leading security threat to the nation, followed by threats of political and social violence, labour unrest and physical assault and homicide.



“Overall, 119 incidents were captured by the system out of which 48 were recorded for the Greater Accra Region, which had the highest score. Ashanti Region was second with 24 incidents which was also consistent with what has been observed for the first half of the year 2013 where the two regions have shown a persistent rise in incidents”, it said.



WANEP also said labour strikes and demonstrations were 12, representing 21 per cent, out of 56 scores of the four threats, adding that union agitations over failure of both agencies and striking groups to commit to negotiated agreements was high.



It said Health and Education sectors were the worst hit, with long periods of loss of man hours and expenditure burden on students and parents, noting that



“Some patients at government hospitals and clinics were stranded…at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, hospital authorities were worried about the fate of patients when about 100 junior doctors embarked on strike.”



The statement commended the parties to the election petition, the panel of judges and the security agencies in contributing to the current relative political stability after the verdict and appealed to mobile telephone network companies to extend telephone services to isolated communities and highways to enhance the efforts of the Police to combat crime.



It called on the security agencies to step up intelligence, especially at border

posts, public places such as transport terminals, in vehicles and during public

gatherings and major installations to curb any likely terrorist attack in the

country.



It urged the public to increase vigilance and share any information on suspicious movements of people, especially any influx of strangers for prompt response.