The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has urged the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to tighten security at the country’s borders.

He said “your presence at the borders is very critical to the security of the nation.”

The Asantehene made the call when the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi, and members of the National Immigration Management Committee, paid a courtesy call on him, at his palace in Kumasi, last Friday.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu asked the GIS personnel to tighten security at the country’s borders to prevent extremists from entering the country.

He said, “I have been observing your trips round the country and how you engage with stakeholders to deepen the collaboration between you and the stakeholders,”

The Asantehene said, “It is for this reason among others that you were awarded the Millennium Excellence Award for National Cohesion and Security.”

Oyumfuo Osei Tutu, noted that efforts by government to retool the GIS has made it a formidable force and deepened the critical role in ensuring internal security.

He praised Mr Takyi for his leadership style of travelling across the country and engaging stakeholders on how to improve the work of GIS.

Chairman of the Immigration Service Council, Dr Edward Prempeh, who led the delegation, thanked the Asantehene for his support and wise counsel to the GIS.

Mr Takyi thanked the Asantehene for the honour done him with the Millennium Excellence Award, and pledged to work harder.

The Comptroller-General said he would continue to motivate personnel of the GIS, to enhance security at the borders and ensure Ghana remained an oasis of peace in the West African sub-region.

The Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration responsible for Finance and Administration (DCGI/Finance and Administration), Mr Isaac Owusu Mensah, Greater Accra Regional Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration (DCOI) Mrs Maud Anima Quainoo, accompanied the Comptroller-General to the palace.

Others were Chief Staff Officer (CSO), Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI), Mr Lawrence Agyapong, Deputy Staff Officer and Aide-de-Camp to the Comptroller-General, Superintendent Amoateng Ennin, and Head of Public Affairs, Superintendent Michael Amoako-Atta.