A cargo truck loaded with 700 bags of government subsidised fertiliser being smuggled to Bukina Faso through the Tumu border has been impounded. The arrest was personally effected by the Sissala East District Chief Executive, Madam Sulemana Alijata. The DCE has called for an enquiry into the conduct of the security personnel who were on duty on August 20, the day of the incident. The owner of the consignment and the driver of the truck with registration number as 6032 X escaped arrest. Briefing the Ghanaian Times newspaper, Madam Alijata said for some time now her outfit had been receiving countless information about the activities of one Alhassan Kantong popularly known as Alaska in Tumu and its environs concerning the smuggling of subsidised fertiliser to Burkina Faso. Surveillance was put on his activities and on Thursday, august 25 at about 2:30.a.m she had a tip-off up to inform her that Alaska had been spotted in a cargo truck carrying some quantity of fertiliser across the border to Burkina Faso. Following this, she called the district coordinator of the national youth employment programme and the district coordinating director and together proceeded to the border to ascertain the situation for herself. She said at the border they found two officers, the Ghana Immigration Service and Customs Division of the National Revenue Authority at post and inquired from them the whereabout of the alleged truck, but they both denied seeing such a truck. Madam Alijata said she asked them to open the border for her to go to the other side and see for herself if no truck had been given access, but the two officers told her that they could not find the keys and rather picked up an argument with her. “I was taken back because as you know I am the head of the District Security Council (DISEC) and, therefore, could not believe what was happening so I ordered them to open the border but still they refused,” Madam Alijata said. She said she then realised that the two security personnel were just buying time to enable the truck to probably travel deep into the Burkina side of the border. “I therefore asked my driver to go through the unapproved route to the Burkina side quickly before the smugglers could escape,” she said, adding that on reaching the no man’s land at Limra and Kupluma junctions at about 2:55.a.m they saw the truck parked without Alaska and the truck driver, but they got the driver’s mate who confirmed that the consignment belonged to Alaska. According to her, the mate said the two escaped when they saw her Nissan patrol vehicle approaching, sensing that they were being pursued. She said they left the truck ignition key so she ordered her driver to drive the truck back to Tumu and subsequently made a report to the district police command as well as the conduct of the two officers reported to their superiors. She said several reports received and the attitude of the security personnel on duty the day of the incident confirmed the perception that some of the security men at the border were in league with miscreants to sabotage the country. “My brother, will you believe that ever since I reported the case to the police I have received information that Alaska is in Wa and yet the police have failed to arrest him,” she said. According to her Alaska has been bragging that he had “settled” all the security personnel in the town and that nothing could be done to him. She said even though the same person was involved in a similar case at Gwollu in the Sissala West District three months ago nothing was done to him by the police except to impound the truck he used in that operation. Madam Alijata has therefore called for an enquiry into the behaviour of the personnel on duty that day and the necessary measures taken to ensure that our borders are safe and protected for the national interest.