Request for reopening of border posts

Members of Parliament on Monday requested the reopening of various border posts across the country, especially the Leklebi-Dafor Post in the Hohoe District. Most of the members stressed the need for the re-opening of the borders to ensure free movement of goods and people in the spirit of the ECOWAS treaty.

Mr Kosi Kedem, NDC Hohoe South, in an urgent statement in Parliament requested the immediate re-opening of the Leklebi-Dafor border post to allow especially for free movement of foreign registered vehicles into Ghana.

He appealed to the Ministries of the Interior and Finance and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS) to reconsider the closure since the border post was one the major entry points into Ghana along the Ghana- Togo boundary.

Mr Kedem said for some unexplained reasons sometime last year foreign registered vehicles from Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Burkina Faso were barred from entering Ghana through that post.

"Most of the vehicles which ply the route belong to Ghanaians living and working in neighbouring countries and are not aware that the border was closed to foreign registered vehicles and often travel long distances only to be turned back".

Mr Kedem said what was more worrying was that the Leklebi border was located deep inside Ghana with two towns between the border and Leklebi Dafor. He said the Leklebi Dafor border post was the shortest route into Ghana and for the people from the Central and Northern Volta Region there was no credible alternative entry point than this area.

Mr Kedem said right now the closure was causing a lot of inconvenience and had greatly impeded trade and commercial activities between Ghana and her neighbours, especially Togo.