Kwame Asuah Takyi
THE COMPTROLLER General of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Kwame Asuah Takyi, has denied conspiring with the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, to harass an Indian, Ashok Kumar Sivram.
Mr. Sivram was deported from Ghana on June 1, this year, upon a directive issued to the Ghana Immigration Service by Mr. Dery over claims that he (Sivram) had forged a marriage certificate in support of his application for a Ghanaian citizenship.
His lawyer filed a suit at an Accra high court against the deportation and the court later quashed the minister’s decision.
But in a petition to President Akufo-Addo, the deportee said since his return to Ghana, he had constantly been harassed by the minister, the Comptroller General as well as the deputy Comptroller General in-charge of Operations, Laud Afrifa.
He accused the trio of attempting to illegally deport him from Ghana to enable them to transfer his interest in his company called Jai Mai Communications Limited, to one of his (Sivram’s) business partners by name Sachin Nambeear.
In his petition dated August 15, 2017 which contained copies of a series of correspondences sent to him by the GIS on his deportation as well as court documents, Mr. Sivram said, “Mr. President, the action of the respondents is a deliberate ploy to render my status in the country without a valid permit in order to easily facilitate my removal from the jurisdiction.”
Continuing, he said, “This action by the respondents is also a clear attempt to undermine the order for valuation of the company by the high court dated 5th May, 2017.”
But reacting to the claims of harassment, Mr Takyi indicated that the GIS had not at any point attempted to harass Mr. Sivram.
Speaking to the media, he said the lawyer of Mr. Sivram went to the GIS after the court ruling and a meeting was held during which he (Mr. Takyi) pleaded with the lawyer to allow him (Takyi) time to get hold of the court ruling, go through it and advise appropriately.
After the said meeting, he said the lawyer left and was later called by the GIS to come along with his client for him (client) to fulfill a section of the court ruling, but there was no response, which compelled the service to officially write to him.
“…So I need to get the ruling as a lawyer read it and then I can advise appropriately so he should come back next week which will be on 15th and he agreed and walked out,” Mr Takyi averred.
BY Melvin Tarlue