The Yemenis Are Insulting Us

Mohammed Ould Ibrahim

A group of Yemenis appears to have taken our hospitality for granted in this country. They are virtually on rampage doing as they please; it is as though they are in a jungle or in their home country fighting on the side of the Houthis or against the coalition forces.

This is Ghana, nowhere near a failed state: our laws are working. We have had enough of the nonsense of raping and unnecessary firing of weapons by members of the lawless group as if they were playing with firecrackers during Yuletide.

They have gained a smelly notoriety in Accra with their breaches, but since we know there is no group of persons with immunity from arrest for violating the laws of the land, we demand action against them and now.

While some of them possess multiple passports, one of them reportedly raped the daughter of a Lebanese businessman but he is still out of the reach of the law. Last year, some of the victims of his lawlessness held a press conference to narrate their woes at the hands of the leader of the group; the man who is yet to be arrested. Perhaps he is so powerful that arresting him is a task beyond the ordinary cops. Otherwise, why would it be so difficult to arrest this man and have him deported from our shores?

The group is still active wielding firearms with which they appear to be terrorizing others of Arab extraction.

One of the stories in this edition is about the arrest of five members of the group, excluding Mohammed Ould Ibrahim. We hope that there is a genuine desire by the relevant security agency to arrest this man.

His name confirms the allegation that he holds multiple passports; one of them being a Mauritanian. The ‘Ould’ part of his names suggests he is claiming Mauritanian citizenship, which is why he allegedly holds a passport of that country.

Being a wanted person in Mali, we are at our wits end as to why he has not gone into hiding but rather continues his acts of lawlessness, some of them violently and so brazenly. What is the source of his confidence and bravado? It would be interesting to find out this.

The Ghanaian hospitability should, under no circumstances, be abused as the Yemeni nationals are doing.

The flushing out of such undesirables from our midst is crucial for our national security. We are already harbouring two from the Guantanamo Prison as a fulfillment of a deal with the US, something which sparked public outcry in the country.

It has been two days since we sought details about the arrest of the five persons from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) but can bet we are not near getting these.

That Mohammed continues to be elusive points at a deficiency in the manner in which immigration-related issues are managed in the country.

We demand on behalf of the people of this country the whereabouts of Mohammed Ould Ibrahim, the man with multiple passports who is still in Ghana. Who knows whether he is not holding a Ghanaian travel document? This man does not respect us. It would be in dignity and security if this man is arrested and processed according to the laws of this country.