Mr John Kudalor, the Inspector General of Police, has said peace and security before and after the 2016 elections will have to be provided for by multiple actors, though it will be spear headed by the Ghana Police Service.
He said Ghana had a youthful population and that made the youth a critical actor in peace, security and development of the country.
Mr Kudalor, who was speaking at a forum dubbed: “IGP's dialogue with the Youth,” said disagreements and misunderstanding should not be a recipe for violence, and therefore, urged the youth to accommodate other people's views since it formed part of the core tenets of democracy.
The dialogue was part of the Police administration’s proactive measures to engage with youth leaders of various political parties in each region towards peaceful elections in November.
He said the need for the engagement stemmed from concerns over the use of the youth as political vigilantes groups.
He therefore tasked youth leaders to avoid joining or making use of vigilante groups since those groups were illegal and alien to our laws, adding that it was a crime to join or form such groups as the police administration was putting in place adequate measures to ensure law and order, before, during and after the elections.
Mr Kudalor said the last by-election in Talensi saw some forms of political violence by vigilante groups that called for the need to consistently engage with the youth and political parties prior to the elections.
“We should therefore be mindful of our utterances before, during and after the elections so as to avoid creating unnecessary tension and clashes, which may result in the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
“Political maturity and tolerance should be your guide as you go about your political business,” the IGP stated.
He said “the youth have also leveraged on their knowledge and use of social media platforms for various purposes, regrettably some of the youth have also been involved in some unlawful activities that tend to undermine the peaceful conduct of elections.”
The IGP therefore appealed to youth leaders to ensure that their party sympathizers did not engage in unlawful activities which had the tendency of disrupting the peace and security in the country.
He stated that the police administration would be fair and firm in the discharge of their duties before, during and after the election, adding that personnel had been warned of the possible negative implication of taking partisan positions in the discharge of their duties, “as professionalism would be our watchword”.
He said mechanisms were also being put in place to protect electoral materials including ballot boxes and the safety of political parties’ representatives at polling stations.
Mr Emmanuel Sowatey, a Security Adviser, said community policing was the guiding principle towards ensuring peace.
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