Ghana National Security Coordinator, Mr Yaw Donkor, has confirmed that two Ghanaian Muslim youths have joined the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
He said per the records of the National Security, Nazir Nortei Alema, a 25-year-old graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana had joined the deadly terrorist group.
With a degree in Geography and Rural Development, Nazir Nortei Alema, is one of the 10 suspected Muslim youth from Ghana who have finally taken the decision to join the terrorist grouping, whose stock-in-trade is public beheading of their opponents or those they regard as infidels, attracting a worldwide opprobrium.
The National Security Coordinator said there were other recruitment moves being closely monitored by the National Security, but he would not give details.
Information available to the National Security, he said, was that ISIS was very rich and made luring offers to potential recruits.
He said the National Security was collaborating with security agencies around the world, and that at this point, there was no need for Ghanaians to be alarmed.
“But if international efforts to suppress ISIS do not work, then Ghana must be worried,” he said.
According to his explanations, ISIS recruits use countries such as Burkina Faso or Niger for their onward journey to their final destination of either Syria or Turkey.
Yaw Donkor disclosed that there is a school in Niger where ISIS recruits undergo preliminary training before departure to the battle grounds.
About the tell-tale demeanours of ISIS sympathizers, he said some of them do not show marked changes while others do.
Badhan Diallo, the Guinean alleged to be the brain behind the recruitment of Ghanaian ISIS disciples, for instance, did not show any changes in his behavior, Mr Donkor said.
After the National Security Co-coordinator’s revelations, the office of the National Chief Imam has expressed shock about the recruitment activities of ISIS in the country.
“The information was a shock. We never thought that such a thing was emerging and a good number of young people were associating with that kind of ideology.
“The Chief Imam and all of us are worried, we received it with trepidation and we are so gripped by anxiety,” spokesperson of the Chief Imam Sheik Aremeyaw Shaibu stated on Joy Fm, a local radio station based in Accra.