Police attack Immigration officers over illegal immigrants

A nasty scene was enacted in the full glare of eye-witnesses last Wednesday at Sakaman in Accra when some police personnel attacked their counterparts from Ghana Immigration Service and freed some foreigners who had been arrested by the latter.

Armed cops in a service vehicle from the Odorkor Police Station, some of them clutching AK 47s amidst verbal attacks, forcefully stopped the immigration officers from carrying out their statutory functions.

They prevented the immigration officers from taking away foreigners suspected to be involved in internet fraud and without passports as required by law.

The immigration officers claimed foreigners were abusing their status by engaging in activities in breach of the law and were taking them to their office for further investigation.

The armed police officers stopped the immigration officers who were in uniform.

Not ready for any physical encounter with the cops, the immigration officers let go their captives and their telltale laptops suspected to be the main gadget for their internet fraud activities.

Based on intelligence from their specialized unit for such information, the GIS personnel moved to the location at about 8.30am for the operation.

Personnel from the Weija Command of the GIS descended upon a residential apartment on McCarthy Hill where they arrested four suspects out of seven; the rest having fled.

As the immigration officers made for the GIS Headquarters, the Odorkor Police Station chased them and upon reaching Sakaman junction stopped their security counterparts and forcefully freed the foreigners suspected to be Nigerians.

It was established that one of the arrested suspected fraudsters called a cop friend who quickly organised his colleagues to attack and free them.

The matter has attracted the attention of managers of the country’s law and order system because of its national security implications.

DAILY GUIDE has intercepted classified documents regarded as a correspondence from one of the security agencies, which lays out in detail what really transpired on Wednesday.

“As they were being referred to the headquarters to assist in investigations, a police Navara pickup with registration number GP 3693 pulled up with siren and crossed the GIS personnel at Sakaman junction near Odorkor. The police personnel in the vehicle ordered the release of the Nigerians from the two vehicles conveying them and their belongings. One Supt Elijah Narh, who was driving one of the cars, daring him to drive on if he is a man. The incident is reported to have drawn a scene as the personnel engaged in open confrontation and verbal exchanges.

The police personnel insisted on taking the laptops retrieved from the residence of the suspects.

This generated physical confrontation as they started banging on the boot of the vehicle containing the laptops. In the process they managed to free the suspects and drove off in the police pick-up with registration number GP 3693.

The freed suspects, according to immigration sources, do not have passports and their presence therefore unlawful.

Many who have followed the story since it broke are asking that the cops involved in the shameful show be brought to book, especially the one who was allegedly contacted by one of the suspects.