COVID 19 Border Protocols: Five Nigerians caught exiting Ghana via unapproved routes at Elubo

Five Nigerians have been arrested by the Ghana Immigration Service for attempting to escape the country via an unapproved route in Elubo, Western Region.

These Nigerians, all males, aged between 35 and 40, were picked up by the patrol team last Saturday evening, upon a tip off from an informant from the community. Their act, constitutes a breach of the President’s restrictions on human traffic across the borders.

Public Relations Officer for the Ghana Immigration Service, Western Region Command, Assistant Inspector Moses Manford Akakpo told Skyy News, that the five Nigerians have been screened for the virus and sent back to their residence in Accra.

“We had intelligence that some five Nigerians have come into the  community wanting to use some of the unapproved routes to exit to Ivory Coast. So our officers were quickly sent out to fish them out. And it came out that five Nigerians aged between 35 and 40, who had traveled all the way from Accra trying to use some of the unapproved routes to enter Ivory Coast” he narrated.

Earlier, in the past week, the Western Region Commander for the Immigration Service, DCI/DR. P.P.D Asima paid a working visit to the sector command at the border. His visit afforded the service to operationalize strategies to seal off all unapproved routes along the Western corridor.

31 Intercepted ‘illegal’ entries and exits

There has been thirty (31) counts of border breaches, since the closure of the border and ports to human traffic on Sunday March 22, 2020. The Western Region Command of the Immigration Service, as at yesterday, had intercepted 31 persons attempting to exit or enter the country via unapproved routes.

Mr. Akakpo noted that all these persons were handed over to the Port Health Service for a thorough examination and testing, adding “if there is a need for them to be quarantined, we take over from there;  other than that, we send them back to wherever they came from.”