The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged the security services to be vigilant against threats posed by vigilantism, fundamentalism and secessionism.

Those threats of violence, it said, were a great danger to the country's unity and stability.

Engagements

The Eastern Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr Alex Sackey, gave the caution at separate engagements with various security officers to mark this year's Constitution Week celebration on the theme: ‘Unity and National Cohesion: The Role of the security services”.

The Constitution Week has been celebrated every year since 2001 and it usually starts on the 28th day of April, the date on which Ghanaians voted massively in a referendum to accept the 1992 Constitution which subsequently came into effect on January 7, 1993.

The Commission had different engagements with personnel of the Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Police Service, and the Ghana National Fire Service.

Preserve Constitution

Mr Sackey noted that the week was to remind Ghanaians of the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, which had been the most enduring one in the history of Ghana, and the need to work hard to preserve and protect it at all times against all forms of abuse and violation.

He highlighted the functions of the NCCE, as enshrined in Article 233 of Chapter 19 of the 1992 Constitution, which among other things, include “to create and sustain within the society the awareness of the principles and objectives of the Constitution as the fundamental law of the people of Ghana.”

Theme

Touching on the theme for this year’s celebration, "We are one: Ghana first," Mr Sackey observed that the country was at a point where the security services needed to be vigilant because of the existing threats.

He emphasised that there was no way the citizenry could achieve unity and national cohesion when those threats had not been dealt with.

He recalled the incident in 2020 when alleged elements of the Western Togoland secessionists group blocked the main road leading to Akosombo and essentially “held drivers and other commuters ‘hostage’ for several hours before the security services arrived.

He added that if those elements had been out there to wreak havoc, they would have done so easily.

Mr Sackey, therefore, encouraged the security services to nose for intelligence and share the intelligence so as to preclude such elements from gaining a foothold.-