20100410
AFRICA NEWS

They swaggered to their duty posts; wearing grave faces that matched their awesome amour, as their vehicles whirled and screeched, throwing up so much dust that eclipsed the reddish glare of the setting sun. It sent animals and little children scurrying for safety.
ghana
The elaborately quipped contingent of the Ghana army, Police, Immigration and National Security Personnel bristling with high morale and patriotic fervour, stormed Ghana's south-western border towns, jolting dozing farmers into full wakefulness ‘Do Not Smuggle Cocoa’ in an operation nicknamed ‘operation hunter’.

When the dust of "Operation Hunter" settled, The New Crusading Guide newspaper based in Ghana went undercover, and can confirm with hard core audio visuals that the much-vaunted joint exercise to crush the smuggling of cocoa across Ghana's Western borders into Cote d'Ivoire has turned out to be an utter national disgrace. The men we trust are in league with the thieves to deprive mother Ghana of her needed revenue.

Our ace investigative reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who went undercover under the name Kwame Nkua Afukaa of Sefwi Anyinabrim, captured very damming findings on some men of the security agencies aided people to smuggle cocoa outside the boarders of the country; a revelation which has angered Ghana’s President Atta-Mills.

These officers aid the smugglers in crossing borders with bags of cocoa by finding suitable paths and contacts to enable them to do this. This is done in exchange for bribe money, most of which has been captured on video by our reporter.

Smuggling spree

Our investigations revealed that, some security officials from the National security mandated to co-ordinate the efforts of other anti-smuggling security officers, equally engage in the smuggling spree.

Resources that were provided by government as part of anti-smuggling processes are used to assist the smugglers. Our hidden cameras captured these vehicles in the smuggler’s camp during our investigations.

The smuggling of small amounts of cocoa using motorbikes and taxis is overlooked as security personnel do not take into account their significance and allow them to cross the borders.

It was revealed also that Ivorian patrons (cocoa smuggling mafias) are given free reign as they bribe farmers with gifts so that they are able to buy cocoa at lower prices in Ghana and resell it at higher market prices in Ivory Coast which offers them unimaginable high profits.

The fertilizer subsidy system, as implemented by government is being undermined by Input officers. These officers divert the fertilizers meant for Ghanaian farmers and sell to Ivoirians while the Ghanaian farmers look on helplessly.

Helping smugglers

Investigations revealed that instead of fighting criminals, these security forces are seen to be helping smugglers. They provide smugglers with vital information that enable them smuggle their goods. Undercover camera’s captured some security officials from the Police, Military, CEPS and National Security (Castle Annex) assisting smugglers by providing them with directions to the best areas to cross the border, links to contacts at border posts and other relevant contacts who could of help to them in smuggling their goods even at prohibited areas.

Some security officers were even caught on camera as they negotiated on how to facilitate the movement of smuggled cocoa in exchange for bribe-money. They normally charge a 5% bribe of the price of smuggled cocoa.

Their personal greed overpowers their sense of dedication to their work and their job appeared to be merely a way of gaining personal wealth. Not only do they receive a wage from their employers but also take bribe money from the smuggler; therefore increasing their income whilst emboldening the people who are smuggling the cocoa.

Operation Hunter was unable to achieve or had been prevented from achieving its objectives. In an interview with the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Police Service, he admitted that he was unaware of the existence of a task force code-named Operation Hunter.

The CEPS Public Relation Chief also sermonized on how committed his outfit was in fighting smuggling, challenging anybody with evidence to bring it for action to be taken against them.

Some personnel of Local Buying Companies (LBCS) like Armajaro, Diaby and Transroyal were caught on video trying to help smuggle cocoa to Ivory Coast in order to get a higher price.

They buy it in Ghana at the lower fixed price of GH¢138 (recently increased to GH¢150) a dollar equivalent of US$110 before transporting it back to Ivory Coast and sell it at higher market price, which was recently as high as GH¢173 (US$130).

Some of the LBC workers involved were consumed by the thought of how much profit they would make and would not close negotiations until they were certain that they would receive a desirable sum of money. It was also apparent that smuggling of cocoa was not gender-restrictive as a few women were seen to be actively involved in smuggling cocoa.

Meanwhile, before the story was due to be published, President Mills who had earlier seen the video paid a visit to the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and unusual of him said, “I have pain in my heart, because some of your colleagues are spoiling your good name. I’m getting daily reports about acts of collusion, about bribery, about under-valuation, and worst of all I have first-hand evidence of customs officers helping smugglers to smuggle goods across our borders. In one I have a video of this.

“My brothers and sisters I know how hard some of you are working, how selfless some of you have been, but you are the largest revenue mobilizing agency, if therefore there is a hole in your collection it affects the whole economy. People have been criticizing us ‘we have not seen anything, we have not seen anything’, they have forgotten that when we took over, the huge budget deficit, domestic primary balance was in the negative which meant that we were consuming more than we were collecting.”