Upper East Immigration boss involved in accident

The Bawku Sector Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), ACOI Roy Brew, has been involved in an accident on President John Dramani Mahama's convoy in the Upper East region.

A GIS white pickup, with the registration number GR 4534 10, was carrying only the immigration boss and his driver within the presidential motorcade when it suddenly slid across a wet road at Tamne in the Garu-Tempane District and somersaulted before it landed on its back among roadside shrubs Monday evening.

President Mahama is on a two-day visit to the region as part of his “Accounting to the People” tour of the country. He was on his way from Misiga, near Bawku, where he had commissioned a water project, to Tamne, where he was scheduled to cut sod for the construction of an irrigation dam when the accident occurred.

Earlier, the President had graced a groundbreaking ceremony at Lamboya, a community within Zebilla, capital of the Bawku West District, for reconstruction work to start on the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom Highway, an international road 115 kilometres long. The project has been awarded to Queiroz Galvão, the same Brazilian company engaged recently to upgrade the Tamale Airport in the Northern Region to an international status.

Accident went unnoticed

The most part of the presidential entourage leading the convoy did not immediately realise there was an accident because the car was at the tail end of the procession with only a minibus transporting the press and two vehicles also behind it.

Some young men who had lined up along that yet-to-be-tarred road to wave at the convoy rushed to spot where the pickup had landed to help tip it over to its normal position. Occupants of the vehicles around joined the efforts to pull out the immigration chief and his driver, both in uniform and bruised, from the mangled car.

Former Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Daniel Syme, among the notable officials in the President’s company, appeared at the scene to help stabilise the two officers whilst arranging for them to be taken to the hospital at once.

The immigration boss spoke to Starr News when contacted Monday night, saying (with an anguished tone) he had received treatment at the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital and that he was “feeling better”.

Whilst the cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained, the damage done to the pickup could prove to be a hammer blow to the sector as the service still grapples with inadequate vehicles for border patrols particularly around the numerous unapproved routes in the region.

President ends tour Tuesday

The President ends his tour of the region Tuesday with a durbar of chiefs at Navrongo, capital of the Kassena Nankana Municipality.

He is also billed to unveil plaques at some newly constructed school and water projects and to cut sod for some roads to be constructed and rehabilitated in the Builsa North and the Kassena-Nankana West districts. He is expected as well to hold a meeting with the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, visit the rice valleys in the Builsa South District and a new warehouse in the same area and pay a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Builsa Traditional Area, Nab Azagsuk Azantilow II.