Mr Dominic Nitiwul, Defence Minister
The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has stated that the Akufo-Addo government has no agenda against any tribe in the country, as it is being propagated by the NDC, in view of the deployment of the military to man the country’s borders.
He has, thus, described as misplaced, misinformation, mischief and propaganda assertion by the opposition party that Ewes are being targeted for intimidation.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, Mr Nitiwul explained that the deployment of soldiers is part of a nationwide exercise to stop people from entering into the country through unapproved routes, especially after the government has closed the borders.
“The ultimate purpose of the deployment is to check crime and illegal immigration, which put the country at a health risk amidst the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
He explained that apart from the deployment to the Volta Region, which has become an issue of controversy, similar deployments have been done in the Upper East, Upper West, North East, Oti, Bono, Western, Savannah and Northern regions as well.
“I want the people of the Volta Region to know that the information the NDC, Minority and former President John Mahama are feeding them [with] is pure propaganda. It should be ignored. It is pure mischief.
“We have deployed soldiers across the entire country and the purpose is to aid and support the Ghana Immigration Service to stop people from crossing into Ghana because we have too many unapproved routes and the COVID-19 numbers are getting higher and higher and we will not sit aloof and allow our people to die because people are crossing into our country,” the Minister said.
Deployment details
Mr Nitiwul explained that the deployment process began in February 21, 2019 where 12 officers, 372 soldiers from the Ghana Armed Forces; four officers with 72 men from the Police Service; and 172 members of the Ghana Immigration Service and 70 staff from the Ghana Revenue Authority were deployed to certain border towns in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper West and Upper East regions.
The second batch of deployment took place on March 30 and April 20, 2020 to the Southern part of the country and the third batch was made on June 18 and 19, 2020.
He gave the breakdown of the deployment as follows: Upper East- eight officers, 199 soldiers in eight locations; North-East Region -three officers, 99 soldiers in three locations; Northern Region- five officers, 105 soldiers in five locations; Oti Region -two officers, 70 soldiers in six locations; Volta Region -three officers, 95 soldiers in seven locations; Upper West -three operational areas: Wa (one officer, 15 soldiers), Tumu (one officer, 35 soldiers), Hamile (four officers, 15 soldiers); Savannah (Damongo and Bole) – no officers, 21 soldiers; Bono Region -64 soldiers; and Western Region with one officer and 13 soldiers.
