Late arrivals at Kotoka Airport prey to Scam mob

On the 7th of November I arrived on a late flight with Royal Air Morocco from Cassablanca at Kotoka Airport in Accra. It was around 3.00 a.m. and relatively few people were outside the airport. Still in the small crowd some confusion about the welcoming party led to the fact that someone I assumed to be part of the group pushed the luggage trolly to the parking. Once the luggage was in the car, it appeared the porter was not part of the welcoming group so I gave him 1 GHc, which is a decent salary for pushing a trolly for only 150 meters. By then a larger crowd of hustlers had gathered around the car and someone they called "Chief" demanded at least 20 GHc. After some pushing and pulling, we managed to get the car to the parkingplace exit. After paying the parking fees and collecting the exit ticket, we put the ticket in the machine and the boom opened. The mob however blocked the way forward by standing in front of the car and the boom closed again.
The still demanded 10 GHc.

We had to return to the young female parking attendants window, which was just 10 meters away. She must have seen it all happening and since we were the only car around at that time she could not possibly not have noticed our ordeal. Yet, obviously wanting to get something out of the scam herself, or most likely a silent partner in the scam, she now also demanded GHc 10 penalty for a "lost ticket" in the usual aggressive and unfriendly attitude most Ghanaians with some form of power over people display. Although we strongly argued that the ticket was not lost and she had seen what happened and she knew we paid already, she refused to open the boom for us.

We went to see her supervisor, who backed up her claim that 10 GHc needs to be paid for a lost ticket. No arguements could convince him otherwise. He refused to give his name, probably affraid of complaints against his person.

A security officer whom we called to the scene, decided only to take the names of the victims (us) rather than those of the perpetrators.

This all shows, that it is dangerous to arrive at late flights at Kotoka airport. Security to protect arrivals for the scams of the hustlers is insufficient. Airport staff are part of the crowd who want to squeeze money out of the unexpecting and vulnerable traveller.
Security staff is not well trained to deal with situations.

I urge people who travel to avoid night flights to and from Accra. Suggest that Airlines which operate late flights put pressure on the Kotoka Airport Management to improve upon security at night.

This blog will be brought by email to the special attention of:
Kotoka Airport Management;
Ministry of Tourism;
Royal Air Morocco
KLM
Afriqiah Air
Lufthansa
British Airways
Etihad Airlines
Kenya Airlines
Cheaptickets.com
and all major travel agencies in Europe and Ghana