Security Task Force assures political parties

Page 53: Monday, September 22, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Greater Accra Regional Elections Security Task Force has assured all political parties and the electorate that it will be fair, firm and transparent in its work before, during and after the December elections.
It said the regional task force would hold a series of fora with the political parties to address their concerns and also collaborate with them to ensure peaceful elections.
The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) James Oppong-Boanuh, who is also the chairman of the task force, gave the assurance yesterday when the task force held its second meeting to discuss its strategies and how it would work with all stakeholders in this year’s elections.
Other members of the task force are the Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP John Kudalor; the regional crime officers for Accra and Tema, representatives from the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Prisons Service and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
The rest are the Chief Director of the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council, the regional directors of the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Information Services Department (ISD).
DCOP Oppong-Boanuh said the task force would ensure that at every given moment there was peace and that the security of the elections was guaranteed.
He said an educational campaign was crucial in the work of the task force, hence its decision to engage representatives of political parties to deliberate on issues of concern to all the stakeholders.
He said the task force was a non-partisan body and would, therefore, be fair, firm and transparent in all its deliberations with the stakeholders.
DCOP Oppong-Boanuh said the task force had identified all the flash points from different perspectives and had mapped up appropriate strategies to deal with them.
“We can assure all the electorate in the region that there will be adequate security before, during and after the elections. All cases that will be reported to us will be speedily investigated and any person found culpable will be dealt with,” he stated.
He advised against making phone calls to radio stations with unverified information which could inflame passions.
DCOP Oppong-Boanuh said anyone with information on any electoral malpractice should call the task force for it to deal with the problem.
He said it was important that people did not take the law into their own hands, since that was not the way to resolve disputes.
He called on Ghanaians to support the task force by providing relevant information to it for speedy investigations.
On whether private security personnel would be enrolled to support in the work of the security agencies, DCOP Oppong-Boanuh said private security firms did not have any role to play in the elections.
He said private security personnel would, however, continue with their normal guard duties at residences and institutions where they were already providing services.