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GIS promotes four immigration officers for bravery in Bawku rescue mission
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has promoted four officers for bravery and selflessness during a rescue mission to save three other colleagues who were attacked by unknown assailants in Bawku on 3rd April this year.
The three officers whose car came under fire from unknown gunmen on their way to buy food were thirty-year-old Assistant Inspector Eric Ayidiya, stationed at the Polimakom border post, and Forty-two-year-old Inspector Lawrence Afari, stationed at Kulungugu post, both of whom got injured and received treatment at the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital.
A third officer, forty-two-year-old Inspector Philip Motey, died from injuries sustained during the attack. He was laid to rest last Saturday.
The officers who rescued their colleagues: Chief Superintendent (C/Supt.) Michael Brewu Ampofoh was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Immigration.
Assistant Inspector Harris Quartey was promoted to the rank of Inspector; Immigration Control Officer (ICO) Wisdom Elorm Addo was promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector, whilst Assistant Immigration Control Officer Grade II Emmanuel Forson was promoted to the rank of Assistant Immigration Control Officer Grade I.
All four officers also received citations, certificates and plaques, recognising their work.
The Controller-General of Immigration, Kwame Asuah Takyi, in an address, said on the evening of April 3, 2023 at about 19:51 hours, Chief Superintendent Michal Brewu Ampofoh, received a distress call from one Assistant Inspector Eric Afari who informed the Bawku Command of the attack by the unknown gunmen who fired several shots at their vehicle, killing Inspector Phillip Motey and injuring two others.
Mr Takyi commended Chief Superintendent Ampofo and the three others for their swift response despite the perilous situation.
“Quickly, Chief Supt. Ampofoh and team of other three officers rushed to the scene while keeping touch with Assistant Inspector Laurence Afari through his phone, receiving directions and reassuring them that help was coming until the team got there… while it shocked me as well as many others how the immigration response team got there faster in spite of the danger on their way,” he said.
He encouraged other officers to follow the example of the four by not turning their backs on fellow colleagues when their assistance was needed especially, in volatile areas of duty such as Bawku.
“All security personnel should hold and teach that we must not turn our backs on our colleagues in any way or form when our help is most needed. I say this because we all know about the situation in the Bawku area and the danger that the conflict poses to security officials and residents as a whole,” he said.
On her part, Mrs. Adelaide Anno-Kumi, the Chief Director at the Ministry of Interior, in an address, on behalf of the Minister, Ambrose Dery, commended the immigration service for recognising the heroic move by the four officers as stipulated in regulation 171D (2016) L.I. 2245 of the Ghana Immigration Service.
Madam Anno-Kumi hinted that Government via the Ministry of Interior recognised threats faced by immigration service officers who worked around the clock to ensure that the country’s borders were safe and protected against all forms of cross border crimes.
She added that government would continue to retool the service to execute its mandate as expected.
The newly promoted Michael Brewu Ampofoh at a media interview said though he was pleased with the recognition for his hard work, he saw this award and promotion as an extra duty which required more efforts and commitment.
“… day in day out when we are promoted from one rank to the other it is an additional responsibility which is a paradigm shift in your behaviour, your operations, your attitudes towards work, how you respond to such calls,” he said.
Credit: GNA
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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