The killing of eight Togolese soldiers by elements suspected to part of the murderous Islamic State grouping or Al Qaeeda is yet another signal that our security alertness should move another notch.
Our northern fringes are particularly vulnerable and require beefed-up security.
Togolese government information about the occurrence describes the attacking platoon or so as heavily armed and we wish to add daring.
The terrorists are gradually becoming dangerously ubiquitous on the West African sub-region.
No longer were they confined to Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso their actions there sounding to most of us distant occurrences which should not bother us.
Now they are next-door, both in Burkina Faso and Togo, the latter especially, being of utmost security concern. Coincidently, the incident has taken place on the backdrop of the recent West African defence chiefs’ conference held in Accra to discuss sub-regional security.
It is as if the terrorists are sending a message to the defence chiefs that their sights are locked on the whole of West Africa, which is a reality anyway. With Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and all hotspots, there is no gainsaying the fact that indeed they are intent on expanding their axis of engagement.
We have noticed the preparedness of our security agencies, one of which earlier involved a joint operation between the military and Ghana Immigration Service personnel and the Police in the Northern parts of the country.
The Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, has not left us in the dark about unrestricted information about the state of preparedness of our troops in the face of the looming threat posed by the extremist elements. He, for instance, shared with the nation information about the setting up of Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) as a response to the threat.
Much as we do not doubt the quality of our security agencies, we shudder to think about the porosity of our borders vis-a-vis the logistics at the disposal of our border patrol platoons.
The ease with which Niger citizens, an area of extremist activity, enter Ghana is a source of worry.
The dangerous extremists can easily enter the country using the many beggars from Niger as a cover.
This is the time our intelligence gathering mechanism should be in top form. Educating citizens both resident along our frontiers and within the country should be considered a critical response to the emerging security reality.
Such education should include how to determine suspicious elements and what to do under the circumstances.
This is not the time to allow unfettered access of ECOWAS beggars into the country, some could be security threats. We are dangerously exposed and the earlier we took another look at our hospitality, the better it would be for us under the looming security threat posed by ISIS next-door.