Open land borders - Minority appeals to President

The Minority in Parliament has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take urgent steps to reopen the country’s land borders.

It said as the Chairman of ECOWAS, President Akufo-Addo must do the needful to give meaning to the resolution of ECOWAS to facilitate the free flow of persons, goods and services across borders with member states.

“We are not yet out of the woods in post COVID-19 but we want to see a return to normalcy with the movement of goods and service through our borders,” it said.

Context

In his update of the country on March 21, 2020 on the status of measures put in place to help minimise the spread of COVID-19, the President suggested the need for Ghana’s borders to be closed.
Consequently, he ordered the closure of Ghana's land, sea, and air borders to human traffic, effective midnight, March 22, 2020.

No justification

Addressing the press in Parliament last Tuesday, the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said there was no justification for the continued closure of Ghana’s land borders.

The Minority leader also expressed concern over what he described as the fleecing and rip-off of Ghanaians and international travellers coming to Ghana in the name of COVID-19 charges at the Kotoka International Airports by Frontiers Health Services.

Those charges, he said, must be reviewed by the government as nowhere in the world did anyone pay $150 for a COVID-19 test.

“I was in Doha, Qatar and Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa returned from Romania and the least you pay for a COVID-19 test is $50 and most probably the highest would be $100, so it is questionable for non-Ghanaians to be compelled to continue to pay $150 in the name of COVID-19 test and raises questions of us using COVID-19 as a money-making enterprise instead of a public pandemic that needs our collective effort to combat and deal with,” he said.

“What is it that we cannot do for our own citizens who want to return to Ghana to contribute to the social and economic of our country?” the Minority leader asked.

Accountability

Mr Iddrisu said he would lead the Minority to come up with a motion, supported mainly by the MP for North Tongu, Mr Ablakwa, and the MP for Juaboso, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to demand accountability on charges by Frontiers Health Services at KIA.

“They are trying to even hide the number of international travellers to our borders. What they do not know is that under the country’s laws this is official information that must be given to us so that we can compute how much we have made charging the $150,” he said.