Sex scandals hit Immigration Service

An avalanche of sex scandals seems to be hitting the outposts of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

The Ashanti Regional Command in Kumasi and Gwollu in the Upper West Region were the latest to record such incidents after a similar episode in Tamale, where the GIS headquarters was said to have dispatched a team of investigators to probe allegations of sexual misconduct against a commander.

Whereas the Kumasi incident allegedly involved a senior officer of the establishment, the Gwollu case on the other hand involved a junior officer whose name, like his superior, we are withholding.

A female staff of the service in the Kumasi office had allegedly been sent home on sexual related matters, with others in the firing line.

In the Gwollu escapade, the officer was surprisingly spared the wrath of the local people after he allegedly fondled a married woman in his room.

The officer, whose duty post is in the district capital of Tumu, but on rotational duty in Gwollu, was said to have lured the wife of his landlord into his room under the pretext of getting her to buy him some ingredients from the market, the day being the market day for the town.

Soon upon her entry into the room, the “charged” man allegedly began caressing her around her bottom and other vital private parts.

His overtures did not materialize as the woman resisted and protested vehemently.

Amazingly, the victim did not disclose her ordeal to her husband but rather to a relative who in turn reported the matter to the victim’s hubby.

The husband kept the matter to himself until he found the immigration officer engaged in an intimate chat with his wife under a tree near their house.

Considering this an opportune time, he confronted him with the allegation, to which the immigration officer denied.

His excuse for engaging the married woman in a chat, he explained, was that he wanted her to teach him the Sisala dance.

The husband however found the explanation frivolous and retorted that if he really sought to learn the local dance, he could have turned to the museum where such a facility exists and not to his wife.

Even though they wanted to handle the matter secretly, the District Immigration Officer at Tumu got wind of it and waded into the matter by arranging a meeting with the family elders of the husband.

The family was appeased with an unspecified amount of money which they said was not compensation but something to buy ‘cola’ for the elders.

Although the District Commander went to this length, the local people took a firm decision not to host any immigration officer in their area.

It is not yet known whether they had been able to carry out the threat.

As to why he did not report the matter to the police, the aggrieved husband said he could not afford wasting time at the police station, given that this was the farming season and he needed time to work on his farm.

As regards the Kumasi escapade, the Regional Commander was alleged to have made some advances which the lady declined.

The lady was said to be at home, the result of her refusal to play ball with the Don Juan of the Kumasi Immigration Office.

When contacted, Ms. Maud Quainoo, Head of Public Relations Unit of GIS, explained that the Kumasi affair was being investigated at the instance of the Minister of the Interior who referred a petition sent to him by an aggrieved person.

She expressed worry over the growing tendency to rush to the media when such occurrences were noticed instead of exhausting the standard channels of remedying them.

This tendency, she noted, was a recipe for chaos, adding however that she had not heard about the Gwollu escapade.

She confirmed that investigations were ongoing and reports would be issued when the curtains were drawn over the probes.