Researcher urges government to deploy drones for surveillance at borders

Dr. Kaderi Noagah Bukari, a research fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Cape Coast, has urged the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to deploy drones to augment the surveillance of unapproved entry and exit routes across the country.

He said, GIS lacked the personnel to effectively monitor all entry points, therefore, the use of drones in intelligence gathering had become an inevitable ally in providing uninterrupted day and night surveillance in hard-to-reach areas.

Reacting to the re-arrest and prosecution of Aisha Huang, a 47-year-old, Chinese immigrant over her alleged involvement in illegal mining activities and recent threats of terrorism and radicalism, Dr. Bukari told the Ghana News Agency, that the use of drones and other artificial intelligence in border management would give GIS an actionable intelligence to make critical decisions.

He said the nation stood to benefit greatly from the unmanned aerial vehicles as artificial intelligence, including drones, were rapidly becoming vital tools in the operations of transmission and distribution utilities because of their ability to provide access to difficult locations on power lines.

“The use of drones will allow GIS to have fore knowledge of happenings across the country’s boundaries and territorial borders to maintain national peace and harmony.

“It will help make better decisions, improving core operating processes by increasing both the speed and accuracy of strategic decision-making processes,” he said.

Dr Bukari said the use of artificial intelligence had become obvious as the West Africa sub-region was facing a wave of terrorist attacks in recent years, a spill over of happenings from the Sahelian regions.

Ghana’s immediate neighbours; Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Togo have all experienced such attacks with security experts warning that the trend made Ghana highly susceptible to an attack.

For that reason, Dr. Bukari underscored the need for the Service to purge itself of the infamy, urging all personnel and the society to expose the “bad nuts’ in their ranks to uphold national peace and cohesion.

He reminded government of the need for strong commitment to strengthen the security services to maintain territorial integrity and urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to “expose the bad nuts among us who are bent on trading national peace for personal and parochial gains.

Notwithstanding, the security analyst advised managers of public places and gatherings to be extra vigilant and take charge of personal and communal safety.

“The best strategy would be the co-operation among all Ghanaians and their readiness to report any suspicious movements and characters to the security agencies immediately and timeously. We should be conscious to make our country safe. We should not leave anything to chance,” he added.

Source: GNA