Agbogbloshie residents reactivate watchdog group

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9-03-09

RESIDENTS of Agbogbloshie have reactivated a community watchdog group to work closely with the police to prevent the occasional outbreak of violence in the area.
The move is part of measures being adopted by the residents to bring about peace at Agbogbloshie.
Addressing the press yesterday, the Spokesperson of the Old Fadama Development Association, Mr Philip Kumah, said in its quest to ensure peaceful co-existence, People’s Dialogue, an NGO, in collaboration of the association, would set up a mediation centre within the community to find solutions to petty squabbles which could otherwise degenerate into violence.
The centre, he said, would be manned by religious and opinion leaders, among other personalities.
He said both the NGO and the association would run a dedicated conflict resolution programme to train advocates on non-violence, adding that a youth development programme to train the youth in vocations such as carpentry, masonry, hairdressing and tailoring would be carried out.
Mr Kumah said “an idle man is the devil’s workshop”, and that once the youth were equipped with the necessary skills, inciting them to violence would be difficult.
He said to ensure that the Korle Lagoon was protected from pollution, an environmental task force would be set up to police the area to prevent dumping of refuse into the lagoon.
“We wish to assure the government and the nation as a whole and the Ga people in particular that we are committed to contributing to ensuring that the persistent violence in and around the community will be a thing of the past,” he emphasised.
Mr Kumah said the association was committed to seeking the welfare of the Old Fadama community and that it did not want politicians to capitalise on the situation or any ethnic connotations.
On the August 25, 2009 incident, in which three persons were killed and others injured, he said the association did not know the perpetrators or cause(s) of the act.
For his part, the secretary of the association, Mr Frederick Opoku, said since the police were the right people to carry out investigations into the matter, they should be allowed to do their work.