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Security agencies asked to cooperate

Wed, 1 Sep 2004 Source: GNA

Aflao, Sept 01, GNA - Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, the Minister of the Interior, has appealed to the security agencies to strengthen their vigilance through collaborations to fight crime along the country's frontiers.

The personnel, he said, were doing wonderful jobs to enforce law and order along the borders but ''you needed the support of one another to further track down and bring criminals to book.''

He was addressing a durbar of personnel from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), the Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at Aflao on Tuesday as part his duty tour of border posts and other towns in the Volta Region.

"We are happy of the performance of all the personnel at the frontiers, though sometimes under difficult conditions or even at the peril of your,' he said.

Mr Owusu-Agyeman told the personnel to keep their loyalty to the state intact. "You do not belong to the security agencies if you carry a questionable loyalty that will lead you to compromising state security." He said the government is on course with a plan to fully equip all the agencies with accoutrements and improve on service conditions to enhance their performance, but explained that will require time to implement all the programmes.

The Minister said a 20-million dollar external grant and nine billion cedis from the HIPC Fund have been released to provide accommodation for the Police and the Prisons.

He said the abandoned Aflao Border Complex, which will now cost 92 billion cedis to complete, is under consideration for completion to provide both residential and office accommodation for personnel at the Aflao Sector.

Mr Owusu-Agyeman said payment of accumulated allowances for all security personnel is underway, while a scheme is being designed with insurance companies to insure all security personnel.

Miss Elizabeth Baffoe, Comptroller of GIS in charge of Aflao, appealed to the ministry to consider arming immigration personnel to fight crime, including illegal immigrants along the frontier considering the risky nature of crime combat in the area.

The Minister also commissioned a 250-million-cedi refurbished office building that contains arrival and departure halls, a VIP apartment for dignitaries for the GIS at Aflao. 01 Sept 04

Source: GNA