Former Member of Parliament for North Dayi on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the Vice-Chair of the party in the Volta Region, George Loh has asserted that the military and other security personnel deployed to the Volta Region are not fit for the purpose for which they have allegedly been stationed in the region.
According to the former MP, the look of these security personnel gives them away as inexperienced, new on the job and not capable of ensuring border security as claimed by the government.
He made this statement in an interview on the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun.
The politician indicated that news of transfers of indigenes and long-serving military and customs personnel at the Ketu South border had reached him but he treated it as the usual protocol not knowing there was a hidden agenda.
“We thought the transfers were usual but the experienced custom officials have been replaced with ones who passed out 3-6months ago. And they have been equipped with guns.” Which to him is dangerous.
Trying to give the government the benefit of the doubt, George Loh mentioned that even if the government was trying to enforce border security, the personnel deployed were not experienced enough to be in the region.
The politician moved on to qualify the security officials as ‘littering’ the Volta Region with guns which he believes is uncomfortable for residents and to some extent intimidating to them.
“We’re not sure of the number of military men in the region but there are a lot of them here,” he said.
Over the past few days, residents in Ketu South have raised concerns about the increasing presence of military men in their locality, some few months to the December polls and days into the compilation of the new voter register.
But conflicting reasons for the influx of security forces in the region have been received from leading members of the ruling party.
According to K.T. Hammond, a Member of Parliament for Adansi-Asokwa and leading member of the ruling party, the increased security presence in the region is to check against the trend of over-voting and double registration in the upcoming December polls and the EC’s new voters registration exercise.
The Interior Minister Ambrose Dery disputed this and has said that the troops are merely there to enforce the border closure as part of measures to control the importation of COVID-19 into the country.
By: Joel Sanco