'Closureof border is posts to protect country'

Page 16, March 3, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwamena Bartels, has explained that the decision to close all border posts to travellers at 6pm is aimed at protecting the country against trans-national crimes and political violence across the borders.
He observed that the West African sub-region had been an arena of political instability, characterised by civil strife and export of insurgency, which threatened to spill over to neighbouring countries.
“These have been worsened by the increase of trans-national crime with the proliferation of small arms, narcotic trafficking, cross-border robberies, currency trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and terrorism,” he explained.
He was answering a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South, Mr Albert Kwasi Zigah, who wanted to know when the Aflao and Elubo border posts would be opened to travellers of the sub-region for 24 hours.
Mr Bartels stated that the control of land border posts, including Aflao and Elubo was a sovereign security issue, which was determined by the National Security Council, adding that as such, the decision to close all border posts at 6:00 pm to travellers had been set within national and sub-regional security concerns which still persisted.
He explained further that during the Togolese political crisis in the early 1980s, the Togolese decided to close their side of the border until 1995, when through bilateral negotiations, they accepted to open their border from 6:00am to 6:00pm, adding that this had, however, been reviewed to 6:00am to 10:00pm.
Mr Bartels said the current practice was that the border opened from 6:00am to 6:30pm, owing to the current crisis in the La Cote d’Ivoire, stating that any further review of the various border posts would be considered within the context of improved security concerns in the sub-region.
Meanwhile, Mr Zigah had appealed to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to expedite action on the renovation of office buildings and staff accommodation at the Aflao border to enhance delivery of services by the Customs, Excise and Prevention Service (CEPS) and other government agencies.
When the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, answered questions in Parliament last Thursday, he disclosed that the Ghana Commercial Bank and the Ecobank had agreed to provide a GH¢10.6million loan facility for the project, which was expected to be completed in three years.
Mr Zigah told the Daily Graphic that since the Aflao border was an important gateway to Ghana, there was the need for the ministry to expedite action on the project to provide adequate facilities to enhance the delivery of services to travellers.
The MP thanked the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Professor Dominic Fobih, for his promise to provide some senior high schools with buses to enhance the administration of the schools.