Burkinabe grabs 3 cops

Burkinabe security officers have released three Ghanaian police personnel from detention in Burkina-Faso.

The Ghanaian police officers were detained from the dawn of Monday June 10, 2013, till around midday of the same day before they were released to Ghana’s Immigration Service at Paga, after discussions among top security officers of the two countries.

The Ghanaian police officers entered the Burkinabe territory without prior information and approval and were taken for criminals who had disguised themselves as Ghanaian police officers. A Police source told DAILY GUIDE that the officers detained were, indeed, Ghanaian police officers who only strayed into the Burkina-Faso territory while they were patrolling along the Ghana border.

According to the source, the three police officers, in the quest to foil a smuggling activity, chased an Opel Kadet saloon car being used to smuggle a large quantity of petrol from Ghana, into Burkina-Faso at night.

“They only realized they were in Burkina-Faso when they were stopped by Burkinabe Soldiers who were also on patrol. There was language difference and so they could not understand the Ghanaian Police, hence the detention to enable the Burkinabe Soldiers to crosscheck the true identity of the Ghanaian police officers. You can go the border and you will not see any clear boundaries between Ghana and Burkina-Faso around the Paga area, so I’m not surprised that the Ghanaian police officers entered the Burkinabe area without realizing that they had strayed,” the source disclosed.

The new Upper East Regional Police Commander, DCOP Alex Quainoo, confirmed the detention of the police officers in an interview, saying the three police officers had been released unhurt, and that would not result in any problem between Ghana and Burkina-Faso.

He also believed it was a clear case straying off from their territory, and this was because they could not see the Ghana-Burkina-Faso clearly.

Indeed, there are no clear signs to differentiate the two countries. Moreover, there are many unapproved routes linking Ghana and Burkina-Faso and that makes the fight against smuggling along the Paga border almost impossible.

Smuggling is almost becoming an accepted practice by the people of Paga and its surrounding communities and so even when Police or the Immigration Border Patrol Team are making efforts to curb it, community members aid the smugglers to hide from the security agencies.

Paga, though a border community, is a small area with a low vehicle population. Trucks from Burkina-Faso into Ghana and others from Ghana to Burkina-Faso buy petrol in large quantities to facilitate their travel.

But then, the new Upper East Regional Police Commander, DOCP Alex Quainoo, thought the demand for Petrol in the Paga town did not warrant the number of fuel filling stations in the area. There are currently over 12 filling stations operating in Paga alone while some new ones are also being built. There had been reports of some petrol station attendants and linkmen aiding smugglers to sneak petrol into Burkina-Faso for higher profit.

Some managers of fuel stations went to the extent of creating an artificial shortage of fuel, especially petrol, so as to sell it late in the night at a high cost to smugglers.

Not even the police nor the Immigration at the border could tell what the law said about the construction of fuel stations close to the borders of the country. It was, therefore, not surprising that people, with support of the body issuing a license to fuel stations, were building close to the border area, to be able to participate in the smuggling of petrol.