The Member of Parliament for Jomoro in the Western Region, Dorcas Affo-Toffey says the closure of the borders in her jurisdiction as a results of COVID-19 has brought untold hardship to her constituents.
Narrating the ordeal residents in her constituency have to suffer due to the continuous border closure, the MP stated that “marriages have been broken, people have committed suicide. Livelihoods have been shut down. The people of Elubo are suffering.”
“I was excited when I heard all land borders will be open in January 2022. But to hear our President say he won’t open ours is heartbreaking. A lot of people have moved from the town and the place is now like a ghost town. There’s nothing happening at Elubo,” she told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, Thursday.
According to her, President Akufo-Addo should reconsider his decision on the land borders and rather put in place proper measures for more people to be vaccinated so that the vaccines will not expire.
“My people need to go on with their lives. The president has not even visited any of the border towns to tell them why the borders remain closed at least. He has to help our ordinary citizens who also voted for him. The President needs to reconsider his decision.
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“In my area we have about 200,000 people. Elubo alone could have about 30% of the population. And that number has been affected. Elubo is quite a big place. So a lot of people have been affected by the border town. I have four approved land borders in my area,” she added.
President Akufo-Addo says opening the land borders in the wake of the Omicron variant would not be in the best interest of the nation.
According to the President, the continuous closure of the borders forms part of the government’s measures to prevent the fourth wave of Covid-19 from entering the country.
“To my fellow Ghanaians living along the borders of our nation, I know of the difficulties occasioned by the closure of our borders. As you know, the decision to close our borders, which are a source of livelihoods for many, was necessary because we wanted to limit the importation of the virus into the country,” President Akufo-Addo disclosed during his 27th address to the nation on the pandemic Wednesday, December 15, 2021.
He continued “We are monitoring the level of threat of the disease and ongoing vaccinations in our neighbouring countries, and, as soon as we are satisfied that it is safe to do so, the borders will be opened. Until then, I believe this is not the right time to reopen our land borders, especially as we are determined to prevent the 4th wave, and, as such, they will remain closed until further notice,” he stated.
