The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged residents of the Mognori, a border community in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region, to be vigilant and support the security services to fight crimes. According to the Commission, ensuring the security and stability of communities, especially those at the borders was critical to securing the sovereignty of the country against external attacks, especially the emerging threats of violent extremism. Ms Munira Yussif, Assistant Civic Education Officer, Bawku Municipal Directorate of the NCCE, who made the observation at Mognori, said the residents were the eyes and ears of their neighbours and it was imperative to be alert and support the security services with relevant information to fight crime, particularly violent extremism. She made the call during a community and police dialogue session organised by NCCE as part of strategies to enhance trust and cooperation between the security services, particularly the police and the community to fight crime, including violent extremism. It also created a conducive platform for the stakeholders to enhance their knowledge on the operations of the violent extremists, challenges in fighting crime and how they could play critical roles in supporting the security services to curb any spillover. It was organised under the auspices of a European Union-supported project dubbed 'Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) Action in the Northern Regions of Ghana' and it brought together chiefs, elders, community leaders, women and youth, security services and school children, among others. Speaking on behalf of Daniel Baya Laar, the Bawku Municipal Director of the NCCE, Ms Yussif, said the aim of the engagement was to create a platform for community members and officials of the Ghana Police Service to interact and defuse suspicion as well as an opportunity to build trust so as to improve police-community relations and confidence. 'The role of the residents of the community is very instrumental to the well-being of the larger society and so the attitude and perceptions of community residents towards police officers and vice versa, has a major impact on the actual level of preparedness for cooperation in crime prevention and crime reduction,' she said. Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr Maxwell Mornah Disuuri, Bawku Municipal Commander, Ghana Police Service, said the police were in every community to ensure the safety of the lives and properties of residents. He said the lack of trust and mutual understanding between community members and police officers was not a recent phenomenon and it was imperative to address it and encourage residents to report any form of threats or signs of danger to the police. Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, Mr Michael Quaynor, Officer-In-Charge of the Mognori Immigration border, admonished the residents to desist from admitting strangers into their homes without proper background investigations and urged them to report such strangers to the authorities for investigati on. The chief and residents of Mognori suggested to the police and the immigration services to make themselves readily accessible to the opinion leaders of the community to ensure the free flow of valuable information of early warnings of threats of violent extremism and other forms of violence within the community. Source: Ghana News Agency