50 Paramilitary Officers End Training in Ghana

Ceasefireliberia February 07, 2010

Story originally published on Ceasefire Liberia

By Leroy M. Sonpon, III

Forty male and 10 female paramilitary officers from various departments of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) ended a four-month intensive training in Ghana this month.

The special training, which was in three stages, was sponsored by the Dutch Government at the Ghana Immigration Service Academy School in Assin Fosu in the Central Region of Ghana.

The first phase of the 12-month program ran from September to December 2009, while the training for the remaining eight months, divided into four months each, will be undertaken by two other groups of 50 officers at a time.

According to the trained Liberian BIN officers, some of the topics covered during the course include Human Trafficking, Basic Intelligence, Enforcement Duties, Border Security Management, Immigration Law/Discipline, Fraud Document/Detector and ECOWAS/International Relationship.

Speaking at the arrival ceremony of the officers on Sunday, January 10, 2010, the Commissioner of BIN, Mr. Chris Massaquoi, congratulated the paramilitary officers for successfully completing the four-month course.

Mr. Massaquoi also thanked the Dutch Government for the sponsorship, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for their partnership and the Ghanaian Government for incorporating their officers in their special training program.

Mr. Massaquoi happily divulged that a Liberian, Edward C. Massaquoi, Jr, amongst 140 officers that attended the course, comprising 50 Liberians and 90 Ghanaians, was adjudged the best officer. He added that the award indicated the physique and intelligence of Liberians.

“We want to say bravo to the first class and hopefully within a month’s time, the second class will be going to Ghana and thereafter the third class,” said Massaquoi.

The Chairmen on the Committee for Defense and Security on the Senate and Representatives, Senator John Ballout, and Mr. Saah Gbollie also congratulated the 50 graduates and assured them of a budgetary allocation during the 2010/2011 Fiscal Year Budget.

Commissioner Chris Massaquoi, Senator John Ballout, Representative Saah Gbollie and Justice Minister Christiana Tah left Liberia for Ghana on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 to participate in the January 9 graduation of the 50 Liberians.

The dux of the GIS-BIN special training, Officer Edward C. Massaquoi, Jr of the Protection Intelligence Security Department of the BIN, thanked the Governments of Liberia and Ghana for the training and appealed that every officer of the BIN should undergo such training, adding that such training would help the fight against societal ills relating to immigration and naturalization.

For his part, the president of the class, Officer David Y. Forkpa of the Department of Intelligence, BIN, asked for the trained officers to be strategically placed at the various borders to help curb activities of criminals and aliens.