To ensure the safety of its personnel, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has appealed to government to adequately resource the Service to deal effectively with smugglers and perpetrators of other offences at the country's borders.

Mr Smart Osei Bonsu, Acting Sector Commander at the Elubo Border, who made the appeal, indicated that the provision of equipment such as weapons and bulletproof jackets were necessary to the Service for the fight against smugglers. He disclosed that some of the smugglers have resorted to the use of sophisticated weapons and thus putting the lives of GIS personnel in danger.

Mr Bonsu said with the frequent the armed robbery cases in the sector coupled with the outbreak of Ebola virus in some West African countries, it would be important for the GIS to intensify patrols on unapproved routes at the borders. He explained that the physical demarcation of the Elubo border in the Region has armed scrupulous persons to use unapproved routes.

He made these known when the Minister for Interior, Hon. Mark Woyongo, paid a day's working visit to the Western Region.

Mr Bonsu bemoaned the rampant power cut at the borders, adding that such a situation allowed miscreants and wanted persons on their list to enter the country unnoticed, putting the entire country at risk.

He disclosed that the use of canoes by smugglers who shuttled between Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana had become a common occurrence and therefore he appealed for life jackets and speedboats for GIS for patrol purposes.

In a quick response, the Interior Minister, Hon. Woyongo, promised to notify the Regional Minister to ensure that the Electricity Company of Ghana ECG exempts the Elubo border from the load shedding exercise.

He said the law that established the GIS would be reviewed to allow its personnel to use weapons in their duties.