A burial and thanksgiving service was held at the AME Zion Church at Bubuashie, Accra for a fallen Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) officer.
The GIS officer was killed by unknown persons thought to be smugglers at Koligu, near Hamile in the Upper West Region in March this year.
Personnel of the GIS, family members, representatives of sister security services, friends, among others thronged the church to pay their last respects at his interment.
Head of Religious Affairs of GIS, Rev. Michael Baakwaa, in a sermon from the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 12 admonished Christians to “serve God who only knew the days of men on earth.”
He charged Christians “to be mindful of their existence and serve God to enable them find a place to live in the bosom of their maker when they are called.”
It was a solemn event as tributes poured in for the deceased from the family, widow, staff, siblings, and his former mates at Accra Academy.
The casket containing his remains was ready for filing past at 8: 00am as GIS led by the Comptroller-General Kwame Asuah-Takyi, Commander of Operation Conquest Fist, other security services, family members among others filed past the casket.
Staff of GIS, family members, church members and high school mates eulogised the deceased describing him as “resilient, selfless, God fearing and hardworking.”
After a well-attended service to bid the deceased farewell, the remains of Ekow Otoo were conveyed for burial at Senya Bereku.
The late Michael Ekow Otoo, 24, was an Assistant Immigration Control Officer 1 with the Hamile detachment of “Operation Conquest Fist” at Kokoligu in the Upper-West region before his untimely death on March 22, 2022.
Head of Public Affairs of the GIS, Chief Supt Michael Amoako-Atta, in an interview with the media said in their quest to have the killers arrested, a Defence Intelligence team with the support of other security personnel were deployed to the area for investigations immediately the report of his death was received by the Service.
That action, he stated, had yielded some positive outcome which would be made known to the public soon.
He said, “In fact, immediately this thing happened, the Comptroller-General informed the IGP and other security agencies and a team was dispatched from Accra to the crime scene together with an immigration team to conduct preliminary investigations. “Gradually they are getting to a finality in their work and a report would be submitted to the Comptroller-General and we are hopeful that there will be a good lead to apprehend these perpetrators.”
“I will say they are more than half way through, bits and pieces of information can be confirmed by other people who may have heard a gunshot or a shout, so may be by the end of the month or early part of next month we may get some information from the investigators,” he added.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah