NCCE asks students to disseminate information on violent extremism

Mrs. Delight Ama Serwaa Akey-Kpatakpa, a Senior Civic Education Officer (SCEO) with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has asked students to help disseminate information on violent extremism with their parents and peers to help prevent it.

She said violent extremism and terrorism had been the topic for discussion, in both developed and developing countries and in a response to prevent or reduce this menace in Ghana, the NCCE had launched the Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) Action Project in December 2022.

The officer said the PCVE Action project aimed at identifying individuals at risk and providing them with strong resilience to prevent them from joining violent or criminal groups.

Mrs. Akey-Kpatakpa, who disclosed this during an engagement with the students of KASEC Model Primary and Junior High School (JHS) at Kadjebi in the Oti Region, told the students that a Survey conducted by the Commission on 1,351 respondents in 8 Regions including Oti, revealed that 11 of the participants were willing to encourage their family members or close friends to join extremist groups.

She said even though the number is relatively low, it is a disturbing situation that 6 of them were in the youth category, hence the engagement with them.

Mrs. Akey-Kpatakpa charged the students to report suspicious characters in their localities to the security agencies via the emergency numbers 999, 191, 192, 112, or 18555 for action.

Mrs. Akey-Kpatakpa said in case they spot a suspicious terrorist attack, they should not confront the individuals involved, but hide and observe the people, gender, ages, and physical descriptions, describe exactly what they are doing, provide the exact location, describe what they are wearing, provide date, time and duration of activity and describe the vehicle, make, colour, number plate and weapons they are using to attack and then, report via the above emergency numbers.

She advised the learners to respect the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of their peers and generally refrain from doing acts detrimental to their welfare.

Mr. Samuel Kusagah, the Headteacher of the school, commended the Commission for the engagement and called for more such programmes. Students of Kadjebi E.P Central JHS, Kadjebi D/A “A” JHS, and Anthony’s School Complex, Kadjebi received similar education.

Source: GNA