Minority Slams Akufo-Addo: Open Land Borders, Stop Charging $150 For Covid Test At KIA

• The Minority in Parliament has repeated its call for the president to open Ghana's land borders two years after they were shut over Covid concerns.
• At the press conference, the Minority also called on the president to stop charging the world's highest fee for a PRC test at the Kotoka International Airport.
• The Minority wants the president to open the land borders to ease the movement of goods and people to and through Ghana.

The Minority has criticised President Nana Akufo-Addo for still keeping Ghana’s land borders closed and charging a huge Covid-19 test fee at the Kotoka International Airport.

At a press conference on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the President must direct his Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, to make PCR test at the airport free of charge for Ghanaian citizens and reduce the fee for non-Ghanaians.

Read also

NAGRAT condemns government’s plan to deduct 10% of teachers’ salaries as rent

“Post covid, we are not out of the woods yet. But we want see a return to normalcy with the movement of goods and services through our borders and therefore whatever proactive measures government needs to take, there must be no justification for the continued closure of Ghana’s land borders,” Haruna Iddrisu said at the press engagement.

This is not the first time the Minority is raising this issue since Ghana’s land borders were closed in March 2020.

President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered all of Ghana’s land borders to be closed in a bid to prevent a spread of Covid-19 when the first case was recorded in the country.

Although cargo is being allowed into the country, residents along Ghana’s borders have taken to the street to protest the closure of land borders.

Residents at Aflao and Elubo said during the protests that the closure of land borders has disrupted their economic activities and deprived them of their livelihood.

Read also

Ghana government accused of brazen demolition of Bulgarian Embassy building in Accra

The President has since the demonstrations kept the borders closed.

The Minority Leader also said government was fleecing Ghanaians and foreign nationals who were compelled to take the PCR tests at the Kotoka International Airport for Frontiers Health Services, the private company contracted to administer the tests.

“Nowhere in the world does anybody pay $150 for a Covid test…highest you pay anywhere in the world would be probably $100,” Mr Iddrisu said.

He added that it was insensitive for the government to be charging Ghanaian citizens $150 who arrive at the Kotoka International Airport for the test that clears them of Covid infection.

Barker-Vormawor: State Prosecutors Make Judge Angry For Their 'Lack Of Seriousness'

The circuit court judge hearing the matter between the state and convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has slammed state prosecutors for failing to show up in court today, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

Read also

Government flatly denies paying $68,000 for Burj Khalifa display of Ghana flag

The judge, Eleanor Barnes Botwe, became infuriated and warned the prosecutors that she will not tolerate such conduct.

According to a Joy News report, when the case was called on Tuesday morning, state prosecutors did not show up to the surprise of the court and members of the public who had gathered to hear the high-profile case.

Source: YEN.com.gh