He said the move by the government as part of efforts to prevent the country from a possible terrorist attack on the country as reported cases of terrorist activities were increasing in neighbouring countries.
According to him, the deployment also forms part of the government's measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 of some individuals attempting to sneak into the country through unapproved routes.
Residents in the Ketu South Municipality said they are living in fear and panic following the deployment of some heavily armed security personnel into the area.
In the Volta Region, the NDC said the soldiers are stationed and doted within and along with the border communities right from Aflao Beat Zero to Duta, down to Yame-Lente and Wudoaba are seen openly harassing, intimidating and restricting movements of our residents to the extent of even following them to their abodes without a permit.
But the Defence Minister said the soldiers were deployed to protect the borders.
He said "We have over 250 to 500 unapproved routes, so when the lockdown came and in the process Immigration announced that that they have arrested over 5000 people that came into the country, the President ordered us to beef them up with police and soldiers, so on the 30th of March this year we sent soldiers to the borders to help the Immigration”.
"We sent soldiers to some of the land borders, we sent soldiers to Aflao and Elubo and some other places…The first one (deployment) Operation Conquered fist was anti-terrorism deployment."