The Burma Camp in the Greater Accra Region has become a no-go area for those without a form of identification (ID).
The Director of the Public Relations Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces, Col. E. Aggrey-Quarshie, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in Accra Thursday, said all Burma Camp-bound private and commercial drivers and their occupants should know that they needed to provide a form of identification before they would be allowed entry.
He explained that the directive, which has been in existence for many years, was “just now being enforced now”, explaining that the Burma Camp was a security zone and therefore required specific security checks.
Col. Aggrey-Quarshie said in the past, the focus of the Military Police at the entry was on security officers and sometimes, on commercial drivers, ensuring that the officers were holding their ID cards, while the commercial drivers were holding the required documents to drive.
Identity card
Col. Aggrey-Quarshie said it was time people moved around with their identity cards just like what happened in other countries, citing Togo and Burkina Faso as examples.
“If for instance you are walking along the road and somewhere along you collapse, and cannot talk, how can you be identified?” he queried.
Security threat
According to him, the tightening of security procedures to the military zone was not due to security threats, but was a normal procedure in such facilities.
He said Ghanaians needed to be security conscious and report people with suspicious characters for prompt action, citing the person who alerted the security personnel leading to the arrest of Charles Antwi, the gunman who declared his intention to kill President John Mahama in a church, as a security conscious person.
