16 Fulanis from Niger arrested and detained in Yendi

Sixteen Nigerien Nationals without travelling documents, have been arrested and detained at the Yendi office of the Ghana Immigration Service, by a team of officers on patrols around the Yendi Central Mosque.

They include seven males, nine females, and two children.

According to officials of the Immigration Service, they entered the country around the Wunjuga Catchment Area in the Chereponi District of the Northern Region.

The Yendi Sector Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, Assistant Controller of Immigration Mr. Enoch Abrokwah Annor who briefed the media in his office in Yendi, said upon interrogation, the Fulanis claimed that they have come into the country to sell herbal medicine to people in the communities.

Mr. Annor said upon further probe, it was revealed that they might have refused to enter through the Paga area of the Upper East Region, which they claimed, they usually used as their entry point into the country.

He indicated that apart from their national identification cards, the Fulanis had no other travelling documents into any other country.

Accordant to the Assistant Controller of Immigration, it was suspected that they had come to settle in the country because they came with their wives and children.

Mr. Annor appealed to the Government to provide them with the necessary logistics to enable them work effectively.

He urged the general public to always volunteer information about such people.

The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Issah Zakaria who is the Chairman of the Yendi Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) said because of the ebola disease and the Booku Haram in some parts of the world, security agencies in the area are vigilant to ensure that foreigners without approved travel documents are not allowed in the area.

Mr. Zakaria said Yendi is a commercial centre within the eastern corridor, and because of these problems, the security agencies, particularly personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service, do not sleep.

He said the immigrants usually use Tatale, Saboba, Chereponi entry areas into the Yendi Municipality and they are alert and are always searching for them.

He said the 16 detained Fulanis with their children, would be repatriated through the Ghana and Togo Border at Nachemba in the Tatale/Sanguli District.

Mr. Zakaria said the MUSEC will be holding a stakeholders' meeting for the second time, involving District Chief Executives of Saboba, Chereponi, Zabzugu, Tatale/Sanguli, Mion and Yendi Municipal, Immigration Officers from the Eastern Corridor and GPRTU of TUC.

He appealed to the Zongo chiefs to always inform the authorities about the presence of such foreigners in their areas.

He advised members of the GPRTU to stop transporting the immigrants into the country, and warned that if such people are caught, the vehicles transporting them will be consificated and the culprits prosecuted.