The Atebubu-Amantin municipal office of the National Commission for Civic Education N.C.C.E has engaged political parties in the constituency on violent extremism in preparation for a peaceful general election in December.
Welcoming participants to the programme sponsored by the European Union, the Atebubu-Amantin municipal director of the Commission Mr. Patrick Tampugre said the meeting has been necessitated by the looming threats of violent extremist activities in the West African sub-region. He added that elections related misunderstanding and agitations are fertile grounds for the activities of these extremists, hence the need to ensure peace before, during and after elections.
The Atebubu divisional police commander Chief Superintendent Ceasar Abanga who spoke on the topics: monitoring and reporting threats and vulnerabilities to violent extremism, ways to detect youth radicalization and signs of recruitment as well as mediation and resolution of local conflicts said security consciousness should start from home.
He said children exhibiting strange behaviour or living beyond their means could be signs of negative influence, and urged parents and guardians to conduct random checks on their wards to see if they could find anything incriminating.
Chief Superintendent Abanga advised parents to be mindful of the kind of friends their wards make and what they do during their leisure time. He added that it is important to ensure that they check on their children at night to ensure they are in bed.
He urged the public to volunteer information to the police to enable them to discharge their duties more effectively, stressing that security is a shared responsibility.
The divisional commander spoke about the importance of mediation to peace in society, stressing that the results of mediation are normally much more acceptable to feuding parties than litigations at the law courts.
The Municipal Electoral officer Mr. Kennedy Opoku took participants through modalities for the ongoing limited voter registration exercise and urged political parties to resist the temptation of trying to register minors.
Stakeholders which included, the municipal assembly, women and youth groups, the local council of churches, Muslim groups, traditional authorities, people living with disabilities and the media. They asked various questions to which answers were provided and also made suggestions towards peaceful elections in December.