Correspondence from Upper East:

The District Chief Executive for Kasena-Nankana West, Gerard Ataogye, has attributed the country’s inability to fully control the movement of people into its territories in the wake of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak to the numerous unapproved routes along its borders.

Mr. Ataogye said even with the presence of the Army, Immigration Service and Police patrol teams at the Ghana’s borders, his Assembly which has a border town, was still having challenges with fighting the importation of foreigners by locals who know these unapproved routes well.

“The unapproved routes are more than hundred. From here (Paga) to Kayoro alone are a lot of them. Kayoro, from here, is about 30 km and you can imagine the number of unapproved routes. Same applies to Sirigu to the East of the district. We have patrol teams of the immigration, police as well as the army here. They do patrol from here (Paga) to Kayoro and also to Sirigu but some of the roads are not in good condition. And you know, the indigenes who pass through the unapproved routes use motorbikes."

"With that, they can maneuver their way through to aid people into the country and that is still a very big challenge for us in the fight against the coronavirus.”

The DCE said this when he addressed journalists after a National Disinfection Exercise of the Kasena-Nankana west area by the local government ministry on Wednesday.

He said the Assembly was working in collaboration with Chiefs and other opinions leaders in communities near the border to task members to be surveillant and report foreign characters attempting to enter the country through unapproved means.

” Sensitization has gone down well, so we are now using the chiefs, assembly members and opinion leaders to urge members of their communities to be surveillant. Anybody going in, you, as a community member can identify if he is from your community or not from your community. These same indigene use motorbikes to aid them (foreigners) into the country so they know and can identify them”.

He also commended members of the Kayoro and Sirigu communities for taking up the responsibility of ensuring no one aids Burkinabes into the country through their sides of the district and urged other communities to emulate the example to safeguard themselves from the viral spread.

Mr. Ataogye further called on the people to desist from the negative attitudes that are marring the efforts of government in the fight against the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

In all, nine markets in the area were disinfected in the exercise. The markets included the Paga Markets, Sirigu, Kandiga, Chiana and Mirigu Markets. The others are the Katiu Markets, Kayoro, Nakolo, and Nabango Markets.

The local government ministry team used equipment including drones and other spraying machines to perform the task.