News:
April 13, 2021
Bomi County (Liberia): Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Tunis has said the Community Parliament would engage with authorities of Member States to stop the extortion of ECOWAS citizens by Immigrations officials at all border posts.
He made this known on Monday, April 12, 2021 while visiting Gbahjakeh Community in Bomi County, Liberia during an oversight visit to some communities across County on entering into Liberia through the Sierra Leonean/Liberian border.
Speaker Tunis was on the visit to engage with ECOWAS Citizens in the border community to know their challenges and how the Parliament can address them.
The major complains of ECOWAS Citizens in the border town of Gbahjakeh was extortion from immigration officials while trying to cross the borders between Sierra Leone and Liberia to trade.
And pledged the intervention of the Parliament as he plans to first of all engage with the relevant authorities in Liberia and other West African countries.
The speaker further noted that in-line with the ECOWAS protocol on free movements of Persons, goods and services would foster integration, ECOWAS citizens should be able to move freely within the sub-region without any form of harassments.
Tunis, however, urged ECOWAS Citizens to be law abiding in any country they live in or do business.
“One of the reasons why we always have our delocalized meeting is to bring to the notice of authorities the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods and the issue of immigration officers.
Extortion is just one of the challenges we have as a region and it is not just here in Liberia, but it also happens in Sierra Leone, Guinea, in other countries of the sub-region and like I said, “these are all part of the challenges that we are having”
Mr. Collins Arthur, a Nigerian businessman who deals in electronics said he has lived in Liberia for over ten years, adding that the people of Liberia are hospitable, but the major challenge are from the immigration officials.
Arthur said despite having his papers, the immigration officials continually harass him at his business place just to extort money from him.
He, however, called for the urgent intervention of the ECOWAS Parliament to stop the situation.
Senator Edwin Snowe representing Bomi County also said the ECOWAS Parliament would move into action to end the unfortunate situation, noting that it was one of the reasons the speaker was visiting.
And added that it is impossible to solve a problem if the problem was not known.
He also said that the town hall still under construction which was used to host the visit will be named after speaker Tunis upon completion.
Mr. Melvin Snowe, also disclosed that the project was a give-back to his county, as it was being built from his allowances collected anytime he attended a sitting at the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
Ghanamps.com