See Something, Say Something: Police smoke out 21 suspicious foreigners

A TOTAL of 21 foreigners, have been arrested during an unannounced police swoop at Akokoamong in the Ejisu Municipality in the Ashanti Region.

The apprehended people (foreigners), reportedly, have been living in a particular five-bedroom house in the community for close to three months now.

Their arrest was triggered by several tip-offs from persons in the community who reported that the said foreigners were involved in suspicious activities.

According to reports, the actions of the foreigners looked very weird, making people to suspect that perhaps they are in the community for terrorist activities.

The community members, who have been living in fear for the past 90 days, however mustered courage on Thursday as they arrested the foreigners in their house.

The police were eventually called to the scene to take the suspects away to the police station for interrogation to find out what they were indeed doing in the area.
In addition, the suspects all these while do not talk to any of the community members. But they are usually seen talking on the mobile phone for long hours.

This, reportedly, culminated in their arrest on Thursday. Further reports indicated that several laptops and desktop computers were also seized from them by the police.

One of the community leaders, Mohammed Ali told Joy FM they reported the strange activities of the foreigners to the police because they believe they pose a security threat and want the security agencies to probe their operations.

“Several times, I entered and asked them, what are they doing? They said that they were learning. In the evening, you see them making phone calls, different phone calls, everybody making a phone call. Maybe they are trying to convince someone or I don’t know, so that is what they have been doing around here,” Ali said.

It is in line with the National Security’s public education and sensitization campaign to get all residents in the country to share information on suspicious activities and persons in their local communities that could breach the country’s security.

‘See Something, Say Something’, is aimed at creating citizen awareness regarding the threat of terrorism and encouraging citizens to remain vigilant, and to collaborate with State Security and Intelligence Agencies to reduce the threat of an attack in Ghana.

The campaign has announced a toll free number 999 accessible across the country for persons to report any and all forms of suspicious activities or persons.

Edward Kweku Asomani, Ghana’s National Security Coordinator, has explained that the toll-free 999 number is to augment the robust security and intelligence architecture.

“When you ring, you don’t even have to identify yourself because we have some individuals who are worried about identifying themselves when they are giving information. If we do this very well, we will all collectively reduce the risk that we face in the country,” Edward Kweku Asomani noted.

Edward Kweku Asomani advised the public to report any suspicious character or activities to the security agencies: “We all have to be vigilant, also we know that the terrorist want access to the sea, the nature of various attacks we have also had in the sub region indicates that wherever they go, there is some form of mineral or natural resources there, particularly gold.

“..Hence the ‘See Something, Say Something’ campaign, we have the view that when Ghanaians own their personal security, when Ghanaians are aware of their environment and conscious of their environment, it will reduce the threat of an attack on our nation,” Kweku Asomani added.