By
Laudia Sawer/Elizabeth Baah
Tema, Sept 16, GNA –
Premix vendors at the Tema Canoe Landing Beach have been cautioned against
hoarding the fuel at the expense of fishermen.
Mr Felix Mensah Nii
Anang-La, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive gave the caution on Monday after
discovering 90 barrels of premix fuel at the various pumping stations at the
canoe beach.
Mr Anang-La
accompanied by other officials and personnel of the Counter Terrorism Unit of
the Ghana Police Service and Tema Metro Taskforce, stormed the pumping stations
to ascertain several complaints he had received from fishermen concerning the
hoarding of the premix at the place.
He expressed
displeasure at the behavior of the Premix Fuel Committee stating that “see how
you are keeping barrels of premix here while fishermen are looking for a few
gallons to go to sea, your behavior is making us unpopular and we will not
condone such acts”.
He added that the 90
barrels of fuel discovered was equivalent to two tankers of fuel, a situation
he described as unacceptable.
Some fishermen and
fishmongers who were excited about the operation at the canoe beach mobbed the
team in a bid to put forth their grievances and effects of the hoarding on
their businesses.
Mr Emmanuel Dodoo, a
fisherman told the Ghana News Agency that people who did not own canoes were
served the fuel when the tankers arrived at the basin at a price of GH¢480.00
per barrel (a barrel contains 70 gallons) but ends up selling to it between GH¢1,000.00
and GH¢1,200.00
Mr Dodoo added that
the operators did not allow any fisherman to buy directly at the pump but would
rather discharge into the barrels of the middle men making it impossible for
them to get some to buy if they refused to purchase from them.
Mr Kwaku Nyame, a
fisherman, corroborating the claims of other fishermen, said instead of giving
every canoe some small quantity of premix to
go to sea, they rather give to people they say are “protocols” saying
“those on that protocol list always get fuel even though they don’t own
canoes”.
Nii Odametey II,
Chief Fisherman for Tema Awudung, reacting to the operation, told the Ghana
News Agency that they sold the fuel to
fisher-folks at a price of GH¢7.10 at the pump denying that the product was
been hoarded.
Nii Odametey claimed
that the discovered barrels of fuel at the beach had not been hoarded for
resale but rather belonged to fishermen who would go for long expeditions and
therefore needed large quantities of premix.
He said they kept
the fuel there as it was risky keeping such fuel at home because it could cause
a disaster should it get in contact with naked fire.
The Tema Canoe
landing beach has over 8,000 registered canoes and about 100 canoes from
neighbouring fishing communities also dock there daily.
GNA
