Watch out for extremely late congregants - Ushers advised

Ushers, especially those at churches, have been asked to critically watch strangers, who come to church extremely late to help check terrorism in churches.

Mr George Dosoo Doyen, a security threat analyst, who gave the advice at a day’s training for the management of the National Peace Council (NPC) in Accra, said those strangers should be isolated, questioned and examined carefully before being allowed to join the rest of the congregation.

He said the ushers should adopt every means possible to ensure that the visitor was not carrying any deadly weapons.

The training is part of a campaign by the Security Awareness Programme (SAP) of the Doyen’s Leverage, a security training entity, as part of its social responsibility to contribute to the curbing of serious crimes, which were becoming a canker in the Ghanaian society.

The campaign, which has already started in some second cycle schools, would be rolled-out to corporate organisations, Churches, mosques, and other public places throughout Ghana to ensure the citizenry became security conscious.

Mr Doyen said people should be more alert to avoid being used by criminals.

He urged Ghanaians not to fall prey to drug traffickers, more importantly at the airports, where they concealed the substance in anything, watch out for kidnappers, human part harvesters and others.

They should not fall for cheap advertisements such as those that guaranteed them free visas, accommodation, jobs with attractive packages that were too good to be true and landed people into trouble such as slavery and prostitution.

He said they should also avoid flaunting of their wealth on social media, in public places, before house helps or keeping too much and vital information on smart electronic gadgets.

When information about one’s business deals, money, among others were given out or kept on mobile phones, criminals preyed on them.

Mr Dosoo blamed the rise of serious crimes, especially kidnapping in the country on porous borders which allowed in too many foreigners who came in with their own cultures such as juju or human sacrifices, rise in ritualists’ activities in the media and others.

He cautioned parents against sending children in the night, saying, they should not be made to walk alone in secluded areas.

The Security expert urged the citizenry to prevent strangers from touching them as they could be drugged as well as not to be predictable such as using a particular route, going home at a particular time and walking in darkness.

Miss Amanda N. Ayorkor Tagoe, a Counselling Psychologist and Personal Assistant, Administration, said there were civil society and non-profit organisations, that sought to provide the basic needs of the needy and vulnerable in the society, adding that security is also a basic need that should be looked at.

She said the United Nations’ Strategic Development Goals five and 16 expects nations to provide security for their citizens and her organisation was helping to achieve those goals.

Mr George Amoh, Acting Executive Secretary of the NPC, thanked the group for the gesture and encouraged all Ghanaians to take their security seriously as it was a shared responsibility.

He appealed to the authorities to keep Ghana from criminals to enable citizens to walk freely as criminal activities were becoming too much lately.