The CGI was accompanied by the Deputy Comptroller-General in-charge of Finance and Administration (DCG/F & A), Mrs. Judith Dzokoto-Lomoh, and Deputy Comptroller-General in-charge of Command Post and Operations (DCG/CP & OPS), Mr. Laud Affrifah.

The inspection afforded the CGI and his entourage the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the project and ensure that immigration workstations designed for monitoring and regulation of the entry and exit of travelers at the terminal when completed, were standard and met desired expectations.

He was met on arrival at the Airport by the KIA Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration (DCI) Eric Afari, and some management members of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL).

The CGI and his entourage were briefed on the progress of work and conducted round the project by the Supervising Architect of the project, Mr. Fernando Prieto. They also went through a simulation on the arrival processes.

Some areas of the project visited included the arrival and departure halls, immigration booths and offices, passenger detention cells, boarding gates, business lounges and operation center.

The project when completed is expected to cater for five million passengers in a year and process 1,250 passengers per hour.

It would also have six boarding bridges, three business lounges, and a large retail area among others.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Immigration boss inspects new Kotoka Airport terminal appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The suspect, Ivy Mugure Daniel was arrested on January 9, 2018 at the Airport whilst undergoing arrival formalities.

[contextly_sidebar id=”625BxNTAnemHdz6Pc67aXQupfzH8KqdJ”]This comes after the Board announced last week that a Tanzanian food vendor had been handed a five-year jail term after she was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport for possessing 2.3kg of speedball, a mixture of cocaine and heroin with a street value of $70,000.00.

According to NACOB officers detailed at Kotoka, Ms. Daniel arrived at the airport on board Ethiopian Airline flight ET 921.

She was however accosted by officers who asked for her check-in luggage and following a search, a big parcel wrapped with a black polythene material containing an off-white powdery substance weighing 3kg was discovered.

A test conducted by the Ghana Standards Authority on the substance proved positive for “speedball”, with an estimated street value of $ 90,000.00.

The suspect, who admitted attempting to smuggle the package into the country but denied knowledge of its contents.

She claimed ownership of the luggage but explained that one Benson, her boyfriend in Kenya, bought her ticket and gave her the traveling bag to pack her things and meet him in Ghana with the bag.

A statement issued by NACOB on the matter said Ivy Mugure Daniel “has subsequently been arraigned before court and placed in prison custody pending trial.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Kenyan woman busted with cocaine at Kotoka appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The passengers, totaling sixteen (16), couldn’t embark on the scheduled flight from Accra to Amsterdam onSaturday, January 6, 2018.

 [contextly_sidebar id=”8PjPQOfHyUd9OnvZ1QEC6E9PBGmSi0YP”]Citi News’ Caleb Kudah earlier reported that the stranded passengers were given GH¢50 as compensation upon their failure to join the flight.

But the Country Manager for AirFrance KLM, Dick Van Nieuwenhuyzen has explained to Citi Business News that the said amount is to cater for the transportation of the affected passengers, back home.

“All passengers have been informed that they will get tonight, a denied boarding compensation of 600 Euros irrespective of the preferred airspace…they got 50 cedis transport allowance,” he explained.

Reacting to concerns of possibly averting the occurrence in the first place, Mr. Nieuwenhuyzen described as a normal practice to overbook so as not to fly empty aircrafts.

“What is normal practice and not specific to KLM is that airlines are always overbooking their flights because there are ‘no-show passengers’. For example we have had thirty-five passengers booked but not showing up so what normally is being done is to overbook the flight otherwise you will leave with empty seats. And most of these things if they go correctly, then you could accept all passengers but once in a while, you get more passengers than seats available and that is a normal practice in the airline industry,” he stated.

Stranded passengers lament meager compensation

The frustrated passengers some of whom had deadlines to meet expressed their frustration to Citi News.

One of them exclaimed, “They overbooked the flight so we are stuck here. We’ve been standing here close to three hours. They said their online system went down. All of a sudden they were doing only online people. They had closed the boarding gate before telling us.”

Another who was leaving Ghana for school in London said she will certainly not be able to make it to her lectures on Monday.

“Some people have to go back to school the following day and nobody is telling us anything.  If I leave on Sunday, I will get there on Monday so I can’t make it for class obviously,” she added.

Flight rescheduled to Sunday

Meanwhile KLM has told Citi Business News it has rescheduled the flight for passengers who were denied on Saturday night due to the overbooking of its Accra –Amsterdam flight, to 6pm on Sunday, January 7, 2018.

According to the Country Manager, thirteen (13) of the affected passengers left for their homes while the accommodation for the remaining three (3) was taken care of by the company.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post KLM ‘settles’ stranded passengers with €600 each appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

A statement from NACOB said the 3; Magugu Suraku, a Ghanaian; Maxwell Momo Golafale, a Liberian, and Daniel Njoku Egbuta, a Nigerian, were arrested on different occasions between March and April 2017.

Madugu Suraka, was arrested on Wednesday, 29^th March, 2017, while going through arrival formalities at the Airport on his return from Nairobi, Kenya.

The suspect, following his arrest, confessed to swallowing 35 pellets of speedball; a combination of cocaine and heroin.

Reports say Maxwell Momo Golafe, who was arrested on Friday, 31^st March, 2017, was on his way to China with 2 slabs of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis sativa, popularly known as wee, concealed in his luggage.

The Nigerian, Daniel Njoku Egbuta, was arrested last Wednesday on his arrival from Brazil.

A urine test conducted confirmed that, he had ingested 111 pellets of cocaine. Egbuta subsequently confessed to being an ex-convict who had served some jail time in Ecuador for a similar drug offence.

The NACOB statement said that, all three suspects have been arraigned for prosecution.

NACOB said it will “not spare any person or persons found culpable to illicit drug offences as stipulated in the PNDC law 236.”

It further assured the public that, it was committed to fighting illicit drug trade in the country, and called on the public to assist it deliver on its mandate.

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Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 3 arrested at Kotoka Airport with cocaine, heroin appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.