Immigration officials deployed to border towns in the North East Region have called for the cooperation of residents to help identify foreigners who may enter the country illegally to register.
They have also described both Phase One and Phase Two of the voter registration exercise in the area as peaceful and smooth.
Sambruk, Kambatiak, Gbadoug and Mambagan are some of the communities along the Ghana-Togo border.
These frontiers have a lot of unapproved routes.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) deployed more personnel to these areas with the mandate of ensuring no foreigner from neighbouring Togo participates in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
The reinforcement team together with officers on the ground have so far blocked various unapproved routes in the area.
Speaking at the Upper Najong Registration Center in the Bunkpurgu District, the Bunkpurgu District Commander of GIS, DSI Edwin Adjeitey Doku, appealed for support from the residents.
He revealed the cooperation of the people has led to the arrest of one Togolese national who came to register.
“Last week when the registration was ongoing at Najong, we arrested one Togolese who came to register and it was as a result of the cooperation of the people who gave us the information.”
Asked if they have logistical challenges, DSI Doku answered in the affirmative.
“The unapproved routes are numerous here but our means of transport is limited so I hope our Comptroller General will get us additional motorbikes to aid our operations.”
A resident, Elijah Silim Laar, explained they will not allow foreigners onto the voter register.
He mentioned the foreigners affect resource distribution to the area because they are not counted during census.
EC voter registration exercise
All applicants who went through registration at the Upper Najong Registration Center did not go through the temperature checking protocol.
The health official assigned to the Center, Yumandam Daniel, told 3news.com that the EC is yet to give them the thermometer gun.
More pregnant women, persons with disability (PWDs) and the aged were in their numbers at the registration center.
According to them, they have no means to go to the office of the Electoral Commission (EC) in Bunkpurgu to register.
But registration officials say, they give them special care.
As at the time of filing this report, more than 30 applicants have successfully gone through the registration process.
Efforts to get the Bunkpurgu District EC Director to comment on the situation yielded no result.
By Christopher Amoako|3news.com|North East Region|Ghana