Nine officers from the Ghana Immigration service (GIS) have been interdicted for their involvement in various criminal misconducts that have caused the Service and the State thousands of Ghana cedis.

These criminal misconducts which ranged from falsification of stamps, permit racketeering, theft of residence permit stickers to underpayment and nonpayment of approved fees among others are said to have caused a drastic drop in revenue generation.

According to a statement signed by ACOI Francis Palmdeti, Head of Public Affairs at GIS, the interdiction was to pave way for the police to launch a full-scale investigation into the matter

“In 2014, the GIS noticed a drop in its revenue generation thereby affecting its internally generated funds. The Director of Immigration immediately tasked the Intelligence Unit of the Service to look into the matter. The unit did an extensive job and revealed very disturbing practices of some senior and junior officers,” he said.

He added that the interdiction was part of management’s arrangement to ensure that such criminal elements did not remain within the institution.

“It also turned out that, some of these officers turned themselves into a cabal within the Service, defrauding unsuspecting clients and the State. This conduct is patently uncharacteristic of majority of GIS personnel,” he said.

ACOI Palmdeti urged the public to not to transact any immigration business with the officers mentioned below until the matter is fully resolved.

The interdicted officers are ASI Penny Oduro Sarpong, ASSIST INSP. Colins Appiah , , ICO Nathan Kpegbah, AICO 1 Kwadwo Huttons, AICO 1 Joseph Amponsah, AICO 1 Courage Ghandih and AICO 2 Prince Adokwei Addo all stationed at the GIS Headquarters and ICO Jeffrey Tetteh and AICO 1 Francis Quaicoe stationed at Paga and Tema respectively.

GIS later cancelled and declared Resident’s Permit Stickers with the inscription ‘Permitted to reside in GHANA under Regulation 9(8) of LI 1691 as spouse/dependant/student of’ with serial numbers ranging from RP0000001 – RP0003000 invalid.

“Stickers for Principal Permit Holders with the inscription ‘Permitted to reside in GHANA under Sect. 13(1) of Act 573 whilst employed by’ with serial numbers ranging from RP 0201052 – RP 0201100, RP 0201101 – RP 0201127, RP 0201228 – RP 0201300, RP 0201301 – RP 0201398 and RP 0211101 – RP 0212000 are also invalid,” ACOI Palmdeti said.

He disclosed that any foreigner with resident’s permit bearing any of the above serial numbers should report to the Public Affairs Unit at the Headquarters or the CID Headquarters to assist in investigations.