Ghanaians are being ignored by the country’s embassy in Togo – NDC alleges

The Volta Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has asserted that the Ghanaian embassy in Togo is refusing to help Ghanaians who could not return to the country prior to the lockdown of all borders, as part of the nation’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Volta Regional Secretary of the NDC, James Gunu levelled this allegation against the embassy in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Afrifa-Mensah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show.

He noted that regardless of borders being closed, special arrangements had been made to airlift some Ghanaians stranded in Europe back to Ghana including footballers with expired resident permits.

“But people who are Ghanaians, stranded in Togo, Benin and Nigeria are being prevented from coming to the country because they are considered Voltarian,” he said.

He mentioned that information reaching him from the Togolese end of the Ghana-Togo border indicates that “Ghanaians stranded in Togo are being prevented from entering the Ghanaian embassy” to seek help and follow due process to be repatriated back to Ghana.

“They have called and informed us they are not being allowed to enter. The sad thing is that some even went to their farms and hamlets across the border before it was closed and were unfortunately stranded.”

The politician indicated that the government’s treatment of Voltarians going through due process to return to the country is only an indication of their support to statements made by Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi-Asokwa, K.T Hammond.

Many Ghanaians have chastised K.T Hammond for making a comment describing people from the Volta Region as not Ghanaians.

But the MP has insisted that his words were taken out of context.

Whilst explaining the deployment of the Military in the Volta Region, he said, “The military is there to make sure you vote if you are Ghanaian and if you have the constitutional right to vote. That’s all there is.”

“They are not electoral officers, but they are peacekeeping forces. They are keeping the peace. They [Togolese] walk into the [Volta Region] and come out normally but they are not Ghanaians. When they walk in there, they can do whatever they do so I guess that is the reason for that,” KT Hammond said in the viral video.