Ghana Immigration Service Intensifies Surveillance Against Child Trafficking in Ho West

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has disclosed that the large presence of armed personnel in some border towns in the Ho West District is to enhance surveillance against child and narcotics trafficking, as well as cocoa smuggling along the border. “The aim is not to intimidate or harass the people in the communities,” the Volta Regional Commander of the GIS, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration (DCOI) Peter Yao Nkrumah, explained, and gave an assurance that the surveillance exercise would be sustained. Incidents Reacting to growing public concerns over the presence of armed immigration officers in the border communities recently, DCOI Nkrumah an interview with the Daily Graphic at Honuta, near Kpedze, last Friday, explained that the smuggling of goods, including cocoa, and trafficking of illicit drugs and children had been on the ascendency around Honuta, Shia, Nyive, Hodzokope, Atikpui and other communities since last year. The sack of dried leaves suspected to be marijuana impounded by GIS personnel along the Ghana-Togo border in July last year For instance, he said that on July 21 last year, GIS personnel intercepted an Opel Astra with registration number GW 3306 T along the Honuta–Shia–Nyive–Hodzokope stretch, carrying six heavy sacks of dried leaves suspected to be marijuana en route to Togo. He said the driver fled the scene in the dawn operation, leaving behind the car and the contraband. Similarly, in June last year, another vehicle carrying 18 slabs of a substance suspected to be cocaine was intercepted along the border. The items were seized, and the vehicle, which was heading to Togo, was impounded, DCOI Nkrumah revealed. He said a similar interception was made at Ashanti-Kpoeta in May last year. The regional GIS commander said at Ashanti-Kpoeta, in particular, the GIS had no post there and, therefore, had to intensify surveillance in the area. He said the service had adequate personnel for the surveillance exercise. DCOI appealed to the public to support the exercise to enforce law and order along the border by promptly volunteering information to the GIS on any strange or suspicious persons. Meanwhile, some residents at Kpedze have suggested the armed GIS personnel should be trained properly on how to handle their duty weapons. They cited a recent incident in which one immigration officer’s duty weapon fell onto the ground, separating the magazine from the gun and causing fear and alarm among civilians.