Stakeholders in security are
strategising to avert threats of terrorism in the Volta and Oti Regions, this
became necessary in view of the porous borders in the two regions and manpower
concerns of the security services.
They called for concerted effort to safeguard
individuals and groups, and appealed to the security services to lead the
crusade since the reality of terrorism was its proximity, threats the public
faced and made a clarion call that “if you see anything, say something”.
The stakeholders complained about the presence
of itinerant sellers and hawkers, mostly from neighbouring countries who moved
from office to office to sell without a permit and security at the Regional
Coordinating Council, Ministries and Agencies should be stepped up.
They made the call at a
regional Heads of Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Security Services
meeting in Ho.
Peter Nantuo, Deputy Commissioner of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in charge of Volta and Oti Regions, addressing the stakeholders, disclosed that in view of the foregoing, the service would adopt unorthodox approaches, in addition to its constitutional mandate, to ensure the collective safety of all.
“The dormant existing law that demands that landlords checked the residence permit of immigrants before giving out their premises will be enforced to the latter, 29 people from an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member state were recently deported for that offence and engaging in cybercrime.
“I assure the confidentiality of landlords will be upheld when such reports are made,
the GIS is tactful about potential reciprocal and diplomatic row our action can engender, promising to work within its mandate to achieve results, the service
has a mandate to conduct searches in houses, hotels, any facility that raised security concerns and I appeal to the public to cooperate with the service,” Mr Nantuo warned.
Dr Archibald Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, noted that the Regional Security Council would engage agencies under it, as well as churches and Muslim leaders, including identifiable groupings in the region to strategise for the safety of all and stressed that “churches and mosques should be wary of new converts or faces in their congregation, as they can be ‘merchants of death’ with targets to hit massive casualties”. -gna.org
