Govt Will Secure Freedom Of 70 Ghanaians

Ghana's Foriegn Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, says the government is working tirelessly to seek the release of about 70 detained Ghanaians in Tripoli, Libya, for alleged immigration irregularities.

The Ghanaians are among a group of West and North Africans picked up on the orders of the National Transitional Council of Libya.

Speaking on an Accra radio station, Alhaji Mumuni said Ghana’s mission in Tripoli was working around the clock to have the detainees released.

“When we first heard the information, we spoke to our Charge d’Affaire, Emmanuel Anoff, who confirmed to us that preliminarily investigations had shown that Ghanaians were among some groups of persons who had been detained because of some immigration violations,” he said.

Alhaji Mumuni added that the government was uncertain about the exact number of Ghanaians who had been held up and re-affirmed the commitment to secure their release.

One of the detained Ghanaians, Hassan Abdullah, who spoke to another radio station through a smuggled mobile phone, said no charges had been preferred against them since their arrest last Monday.

Explaining their predicament, Hassan said their passports had been taken from them and that officials from the Ghanaian Embassy in Libya were denied access to them, adding, “The conditions we live in are very bad. The whole day we are given just water and a little bread.”