The Togolese government has ordered its border personnel to stop forthwith all acts of extortion and harassment of travellers along the country\'s borders.
A government communiqu? read on the Togolese National Television and Radio and monitored by the Ghana News Agency at Aflao on Tuesday, February 13, said the reported acts contravened the ECOWAS Charter and protocol on the free movement of goods and people in the West Africa sub-region.
The communique noted that such practices bring government machinery into disrepute and public ridicule and constitutes a drawback to sub-regional efforts towards promoting common understanding among the peoples of the sub-region for peace, economic growth and poverty eradication.
\"Those who flout the order risk dismissal, arrest and prosecution and imprisonment,\" the communiqu? said.
It called on travellers to immediately report any acts of extortion and harassment against them.
Following the directive, travellers are now able to go through arrival and departure formalities without being heckled and whipped to force them to pay between 1,000 CFA and 2,000 CFA as inducements to border officials.
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