A Ghanaian prisoner in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, Hassan Abdulai, has expressed concern over the treatment meted out to Ghanaians in that country’s prisons. Hassan Abdulai and 74 other Ghanaians were recently arrested in Tripoli at the zenith of the fight between the rebel forces and pro-Gaddafi fighters for control of the country. Speaking via phone from his prison cell in Libya, Hassan told host of Adom TV’s morning show BADWAM, on Multi TV, Kwadjo Asare Baffour Acheampong that “we were arrested for no offense at all”. According to him, “the government picked us up after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. They called for officials of the United Nations Agencies who asked us if we wanted to go home and we responded in the affirmative. After assuring us we were going to be sent back to Ghana, they left. We didn’t hear from them after two days so I called and we were once again assured that they were going to come for us. The landlord became impatient and ejected us. It’s been a month now since the Police arrested us and put us in prison, no one seems to care about us”. He added that “every attempt to get the Ghanaian Embassy to come to our aid has proven futile. No one is willing to assist us”. But Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni says he has no knowledge of 75 Ghanaians imprisoned in Libya. Responding to the concerns raised by Hassan on the show, Alhaji Mumuni said “we have information regarding a number of sub-Saharan Africans who are in detention including a number of Ghanaians. At our last meeting, it was 22 Ghanaians who were involved and our mission in Tripoli is following up on that story”. He however expressed concern that the uprising in Libya has made it difficult to secure the release of Ghanaian nationals imprisoned in the North African country noting that “we have had problems even when the country was not in turmoil during the period of Muammar Gaddafi with Libya in particular. We have had situations where people were calling from so called condemned cells to radio stations saying they were going to be executed. You will wonder how someone in prison has access to mobile phones and is freely able to communicate with people outside. You should question that as well”. He also noted that most Ghanaians travel to foreign countries without a resident permit or visa, a move he contends violates the laws of those countries and also complicates the lives of Ghanaians living in foreign lands. “We were in Libya not too long ago when the war broke out to convey Ghanaians living there back to Ghana but most of them were hiding from state authorities and missions, they didn’t want to come home... and this brings about a lot of difficulties” he lamented. He however gave the assurance that government would explore every legal means to find an amicable solution to the matter. “President Mills has directed that every Ghanaian living in Libya under the circumstance should be brought home and we are working assiduously on that” he concluded.