Ghanaians in Togo, Benin, Nigeria arriving for December 7 polls

Large numbers of Ghanaians sojourning in Togo, Benin and Nigeria have started arriving in Aflao en-route their hometowns to participate in the Friday December 7 General Elections.

Others were said to be coming by sea to places mainly in the Greater-Accra Region.

Ghana border officials confirmed the arrivals to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday.

Some of the home-comers told the GNA at the Ghana Private Road Transport Union terminal that they were arriving in good time in case the Togolese authorities decided to close their side of the frontier as happened in the 2008 elections when they could not vote.

They said the move was also to avoid harassment from both Togolese and Ghanaian frontier officials who in 2008 exploited their late arrival.

Some of the home-comers mainly traders and shoe shine boys and majority of them fishermen and fishmongers, said they were heading to Greater-Accra, Volta, Central, Eastern and Western and Brong-Ahafo regions.

Mr Dorkutso Dzabaku, travelling in the company of seven other fishermen from Cotonou in Benin said they were going to places in the Dangme-East District, adding his wife and six others left a day earlier alongside other groups.

Paa Kwesi Onyame in the company of two others also from Benin said they were going to Mankesim in the Central Region while one Kwabena Okyere, a Shoeshine returning from Nigeria said he was heading for Kumasi.

The largest number of the returnees including Lome-based head porters were heading for places in the Volta Region.

Shortly before the 2008 elections hundreds of Ghanaians returning from these countries were apprehended and detained for hours and days by both Ghana and Togolese security personnel as they attempted to enter the country through unapproved routes to take part in that election.

Meanwhile, political parties have intensified their campaigns in Aflao using public address systems mounted on party vans.

Source: GNA