A recent occurrence at the Mole Park has once again resurrected the issue of inadequate tourist sites security in Ghana.
It happened that the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Catherine Afeku decided to carry out a familiarization tour around tourist sites in the Northern Region of Ghana. The Minister set off her tour in the company of some other officials on Saturday, September 30.
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Madam Afeku, together with her entourage first visited the the Larabanga Mosque and the Mystic Stone. The next site on their list was the Mole National Park, but no one envisaged the experience that will greet them there.
On getting to the Mole Park, a game reserve which is popularly known for harbouring lots of vibrant gigantic elephants, the group just like other tourist do, started a site-seeing move around the park in a tourist vehicle.
However, the visit along the line took an unexpected frightening turn when an angry elephant emerged and started charging towards them. It is believed that the furious creature was disturbed by a siren from the Minister’s convoy journeyed round the park.
According to reports from myjoyonline.com, the Minister’s convoy was held hostage by the elephant for over 30 minutes as a tour guide’s frantic efforts to calm the elephant and to move it out of the way proved futile.
When it appeared the tour guide has succeeded, everyone heaved a sigh of relief and hurried to leave the scene, but the elephant started off a hot chase after the minister and her entourage, making the situation worse and more frightening.
Seeing the jeopardy they have landed themselves in, the group were gripped by fear and panic, with some of them starting to scream. The situation was so dire that even police officers were gripped by fear as one of them leading the convoy on a motorcade fled the scene.
The issue of tourist sites security has been an old issue which is raised among stakeholders from time to time in Ghana. Unfortunately, the topic is usually raised after the concurrence of a tragic incident, only to be dropped after the dusts die down, with very little or close to nothing done to effect changes.
Despite the fact that tourist accidents occur from time to time in all parts of the world, Ghana is yet to measure up when it comes to standard security management at the county’s various tourist attraction destinations as some of the accidents that occur are usually foreseeable and preventable in nature.
The Kintampo Waterfall accident which occurred earlier this year is one of such which happened as a result of lack of proper safety measures at the site. Some huge old trees had fallen on tourists, leaving 18 persons dead, and 22 others severely injured.
It is hoped that this latest development will prompt a significant action towards beefing up security and safety measures at tourists destinations, especially while considering the fact that a government official has fallen victim of the life-endangering lapse.
Below is a video report of the Mole Park elephant incident by TV3:
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