After serving their sentence aliens still held in cells

Eleven foreign nationals who were released from Nsawam Prisons after serving their prison sentences are still languishing in police cells since October of last year.

The ex-convicts, who are nationals of Togo and Nigeria, are presently locked up in police cells at the Cantonments, Nungua, Accra Central and Korle Gonno police stations. They are made up of eight Nigerians and three Togolese.

Official records gave their names as Abubarkar Abba, Ezekiel Izukekwu, Austine Okechu, Edward Albert, Victor Egwu, Yaw Joseph, Sunday Tess and Abola all from Nigeria, whilst the Togolese are Dennis Braavo, Landy Leon, and Prince Agbedzan

In a chat with the Chronicle at the Cantonments Police Station, the ex-convicts claimed that they are being punished for political reasons because after their release from the Nsawam Prison, a Prison warder told them that "their home Governments are said to be supporting the New Patriotic Party (NPP), then an opposition party, so they should go to cell for the NPP Government to come and release them".

According to them, this statement was made three months before the 2000 December 7 elections and 28th Presidential run-off. Yaw Joseph, a Nigerian at the Cantonments Police Station, added that at times, they were chained to the cell gate for days without food.

He made a passionate appeal to His Excellency President J.A. Kufuor to respond to their pleas to be sent back to their various countries. He also appealed to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Yaw Joseph also appealed to their compatriots in Nigeria and Ghana, who he said would be thinking they are dead, to note that they are still alive in Ghanaian Police cells.

However, when Chronicle visited the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) Headquarters, the GPS Public Relations Officer, Supt. Solomon Antwi confirmed the report that the ex-convicts completed serving their various sentences and were handed over to the Police CID, pending their deportation.

He, however, reminded the Chronicle that their duty was to make sure that these men served their terms, after which it was left with the police to carry on from there.

Meanwhile, at the Police Headquarters it was confirmed that ex- convicts were in police custody and waiting for instruction from the Ministry of the Interior to execute the deportation order.

According to the Police Official report, the ex-convicts committed crimes ranging from illegal mining, unlawful entry to stealing. But at the Ministry of the Interior, a source who spoke to the Chronicle under anonymity explained that the Ministry itself does not issue deportation order.

According to him, the whole deportation exercise is a process that must meet the assent of the Chief Justice or the Ministry of Justice who certified that ex- foreigners were convicted by a court and having served their terms of imprisonment are to be deported. That is where the Minister then gets the concurrence of the Ministry to go ahead with the deportation, the source said.