A former flag bearer aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah; the party’s MP for Bolgatanga Central Isaac Adondo and its National Communication Officer Sammy Gyamfi were thrown out of the Tema Port by security personnel there on Friday, 26 June 2020 as they tried addressing the media at the Revenue Division.

The three had gone to the Customs Office to find out how the implementation of the UNIPASS-ICUMS system introduced by the government was operating.

UNIPASS-ICUMS is a port clearing system that allows payments and processing of documents to be done through one window.

Its implementation began on Monday, 1 June 2020.

Freight forwarders and exporters have had cause to constantly complain about its ineffectiveness.

Speaking to the media after the incident, Mr Gyamfi explained that: “As a political party, we have heard and taken notice of agitations of various stakeholder groups here about the implementation challenges associated with the newly-introduced UNIPASS-ICUMS system. So, we came here to engage with the stakeholders to better understand what the challenges are.”

“We came here to see for ourselves whether the UNIPASS is working smoothly or whether it is not working at all as we’ve been made to understand by the various stakeholder groups here and I am sure you can see the chaotic situation here for yourselves,” Mr Gyamfi stated.