Madam Akosua Danquah Ntim Sekyere, the Coordinator of the "See Something Say Something" campaign of the National Security, says Ghana being the only country within the West Africa sub-region that has not suffered terrorist attack does not mean the country is immune to the attacks.
She said there was, thus, the need for the government to put in proactive measures rather than to sit aloof and suffer an attack before going into firefighting.
She said that informed the introduction of the See Something Say Something campaign to encourage the citizens to report suspected security issues in their localities for swift action.
Madam Sekyere said this in Wa during a meeting with religious leaders in the Wa Municipality as part of a regional sensitisation tour by the National Security to educate the public on the “See Something Say Something” campaign and to encourage the people to call the toll-free line, 999, to report suspected security issues.
“Ghana has always adapted a whole of government approach. Government has always been in charge of our security. It is now become very important because activities of terrorists have evolved.”
“And so it has become very important now that we adopt a whole of society approach also by having citizens come onboard, volunteer information when necessary, whenever they spot anything suspicious within their community,” she added.
She said security is a shared responsibility and the need to engage the communities to complement the government’s efforts in safeguarding security.
Mr Kester Osei, a Team Member, educated the people on the accurate reporting of suspected security issues and introduced them to the “SALUTE” reporting format. The “SALUTE” was an acronym that sought to present a vivid description of the suspected issue of concern – an object, a person or an action.
It described the SIZE of the object or person, the ACTIVITY of the person that called for attention, the LOCATION of the incident, the UNIFORM (colour or type of dress) of the person, the TIME the incident happened, and the EQUIPMENT the person operated with such as a camera or a gun.
He, however, warned against prank calls to the toll-free number as that could deny a person with genuine concern access to the Call Centre which could in turn affect the entire nation.
Failure of the agents at the 999 toll-free Call Centre to promptly respond to calls by citizens and ineffective implementation of the security mechanisms by the National Security were some concerns the religious leaders raised.