The Defence minister, Dominic Nitiwul has said that Ghana has always been a target of terrorist attacks for many years now.
According to him, there has been a southward drift of terrorism activities towards the country since 2013.
Speaking to Beatrice Adu on the sidelines of the launch of a national security campaign dubbed “See something, say something” to educate the citizenry to report any suspicious activities related to terrorism to the security agencies on Tuesday (24 May), Nitiwul said, “the general view is that Ghana has always been a target [of terrorist attacks] for a very long time now. And since 2013, there has been a southward drift towards our country. Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast; are the coastal countries that have always been targeted, it’s not just Ghana alone.”
“Unfortunately for them, they’ve entered into those countries and it’s just Ghana alone that we’ve managed to hold them till date. So, it’s something that we need to galvanise the entire society to let them be part of the efforts.
“The security is on top of their game, but they [citizens] have to be part of the efforts to ensure that we do not allow even any incident on our soil,” he said.
Listen to Nitiwul in the attached audio below:
Society approach to help deal with terrorist threats
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Security has said it intends to involve the citizens by way of using a society approach to avert the threats of possible terrorist attacks in Ghana.
According to the ministry, the national security strategy seeks to engage the citizenry as part of its pillars to forestall any terrorist activity in the country.
Speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin on Monday (23 May), the security analyst at the national security secretariat Victoria Sam said, “the national security as we’ve all known for ages has always been at the background performing its mandate of protecting the citizens and safeguarding the country. Just last year, we launched our “national security strategy” whereas part of the pillars of our duties, we had the whole of society-approach of mitigating against the threat that confronts us.
“And this whole of society-approach requires all citizens to play important roles in protecting the country. So, we feel that it is time for us to implement this important pillar of the national security strategy where we get citizens involved in protecting the country.”
Nicholas Brown
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