Immigration Officers to soon wield firearms

Personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) will soon be given the right to wield firearms once a bill is passed by Parliament to that end, Public Affairs Officer of the Service Francis Palmdeti has told Morning Starr host Kafui Dey.

“Fortunately we have a new [bill] that is in the process of being passed into law and it will give us the right to wield arms, hopefully once that law is passed, our men will be equipped with weapons.

“We need weapons to serve as a deterrent [to illegal immigrants] along the frontiers,” he said.

The Service, according to Mr Palmdeti, will be able to do its work more effectively once its personnel are armed.

GIS, with the help of the Police, recently picked up 49 Fulani people in the northern part of the Volta region. The immigrants said they were from the Oyo state in Nigeria and were travelling to Chinderi, the capital of Krachie-Nchurumu but were deserted at the ferry crossing area in Dambai by the driver who brought them from Nigeria.

According to their leader, who holds a Nigerian Voter I.D with the name Atiku Alhaji Adams, they were scheduled to arrive at Chinderi where they will engage in cattle herding.

Apart from the few approved borders Ghana shares with Togo, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, there are many illegal routes used by immigrants to gain access into Ghana on the blindside of the GIS. Mr Palmdeti said although the Service is doing well policing the country’s borders, it could do more if its personnel are better resourced.