Loose security at KIA

The Kotoka International Airport, the National Aviation gateway, in Accra has been turned into a stealing arena by crooks in collaboration with some official porters at the airport.

"Free Press" investigation at the Airport over the weekend revealed that passengers leaving the country, many a time, have their hand luggage stolen through diversion by porters. A source told the paper that in the evenings the Departure Hall of the Airport is inundated with all sorts of people and virtually turning it into a market place.

As a result crooks, in collaboration with official porters, swap the luggage of passengers with similar suitcases they have stuffed with blocks and stones to give it a similar weight. It was also found that many of the no-go security areas of the airport are veritable smuggling routes.
The source revealed that passenger trafficking had been going on at the out of bounds security areas and drugs are also smuggled into planes through these security routes.

The paper also carries that as a result of the laxity there, black marketers who change foreign currencies have taken shelter on the compound of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Ghana Immigration Service situated between the Airport Police Station and the main airport even though there are official Forex Bureaux at the main airport area.
The Free Press says when it visited the said location last Monday people of non-Ghanaian origin were seen doing brisk business on the compound of CEPS and Immigration Service quarters at the Airport.