A/R: Residents Want Safety Assurance After 635 Hotspots Were Identified For Election Violence
Residents in the Ashanti Region want security agencies to ensure their safety before, during, and after the December polls.
The call follows a release by the Police Service which shows that the Region has the highest number of election violence hotspots.
With less than two months to the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary polls, the Ghana Police Service has identified 4,908 areas in the country as hotspots.
Out of the number, the Ashanti Region tops the list with 635 identified areas.
This is a concern for residents in the region who want security agencies to do more to ensure their safety.
Although the Ashanti Regional Security Council has assured inhabitants of safety throughout the election period, residents want adequate measures put in place to ensure violent free polls.
A resident Deborah Gyamera said such developments are worrying to especially with barely two months to the December polls.
“Everybody should be worried in a way, but if we have good strategies by the Government, maybe good things that they have put in place, we might be secured. In a way God is our help”, she added
The police and personnel from other security agencies in the region on Friday 23rd October 2020 embarked on a confidence-building march to assure the public of their readiness to maintain order in the upcoming polls.
The personnel marched through the principal streets of the Kumasi metropolis. Heads of security agencies in the region have assured they will beef up security in areas identified as hotspots to avert possible violence.
The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has warned that persons who will foment violence before, during, and after the polls will not be tolerated.
“Everybody within the region should be reassured that their safety and security will be intact before, during, and after the elections and even up to the end of the year for us to enjoy a very peaceful Christmas and New Year. We are sending word of caution to all those who don’t like peace or not like us to have peace. The way the security agencies have conducted themselves up to date, I very proud of them. Those people should know that we are not going to lose guard and any attempt to destabilize the peace that we have in this region will not be tolerated”, he stressed.
Addressing personnel after the march, Ashanti Regional Minister who is also Chairman of REGSEC, Simon Osei Mensah admonished the personnel to discharge their duties professionally without fear or favor.