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Percival Kofi Akpaloo, Election 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) said unemployment fuels crime and could be a cause of insecurity, following a surge in violent crimes.

He said: “the government is responsible for providing adequate jobs for the teeming unemployed youth of the country, so when there are no jobs, there is the tendency of increased crimes.”

As a remedy, he said, his party would give unemployment benefits to persons who may have lost their jobs through no fault of theirs and unemployed persons above 18 years would receive monthly stipends to grow their businesses to stimulate the economy.

Mr Akpaloo who was speaking during an engagement with Ghana News Agency at Tema said unemployment was a major trigger of insecurity in the country and had resulted in the increasingly spate of day and highway robberies in some parts of the country.

He asserted that, the joblessness among youth and the desperation that accompanied it was a major problem that must be resolved as it undermined the security of the country and its progress generally.

He said: “most unemployed persons, especially the youth are desperate to make a living and as a result of their hardship, they go out of their way and get into criminal activities.”

He explained that his party hoped to create a four-billion-dollar job fund to provide over four million jobs to Ghanaians especially the youth.

Mr Akpaloo said the collective security of the country was of concern to him, and that one of the ways to nipping the phenomenon in the bud was having a proper identification system and database of Ghanaians to track persons who perpetrate crime.

He, therefore, commended the National Identification Authority for the implementation of the Ghana Card, adding that it will, among other things, help to reduce crime.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, Regional Manager explained that the stakeholder engagement seeks to strengthen the media relations with state and non-state actors.

He said in view of emerging journalistic developmental challenges especially the issue of fake news and social media trending, where ministers of state and government officials resort to communicate officially through social media platforms; there is the need to hold the pillars of professional journalism through the dissemination of unbiased news to the world.

He described as an anomaly the practice where public officials disseminated formal information through private social media portals, saying “as much as it is wrong, it is also a dangerous development, which has contributed to the circulation of fake news.

“Now the world especially media practitioners are confused whether to hold on to the traditional media professionalism or get onboard the fast track social media train with its landmines”.

Mr Ameyibor said the fact remains that the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, and public accountability, cannot be sacrificed on the altar of speed or speculative journalism.

“We cannot deny the fact that the old analog way of news gathering has long passed; news gathering and dissemination cannot wait for two seconds, we are in the fast lane, what then can media practitioners do to catch up with the fast moving new media news train?

He said the gathering of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public have change, hence the need for the Ghanaian media landscape to wake up to the global wind of change.

“We need news on the hour mark, in between the hours to the citizen need news, if the traditional media fail to provide it, the social media will fill the vacuum.

“Our news packaging must also change from the mediocre long sermons news to fast, accurate, objective and straightforward news,” Mr Ameyibor noted.