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Swedru Police, Drivers Clash |
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The Agona Swedru District Command of the Ghana Police Service on Tuesday clashed with members of three drivers unions in the Agona Swedru Township over parking space. |
Executive officers of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), the Ghana Co-operative Drivers Union, the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA) as well as their drivers early in the morning decided to move their vehicles to the roadside to pick up passengers instead of going to the main lorry stations.
They claimed the District Assembly and the Swedru Divisional MTTU have deliberately allowed buses belonging to Metro Mass Transport (MMT), popularly known as ‘Kufuor buses’, to pick up passengers and to load at unauthorized places along the principal streets of Agona Swedru.
The Drivers Union remarked that for a very long time, the long buses have been taking on passengers at a place very close to the main lorry station of both the GPRTU and PROTOA, causing financial loss to the drivers and the various unions.
According to them, they decided to park their vehicles at the roadside so that they could also get passengers, thus leaving the main stations empty.
The drivers contended that several attempts made to prompt the authorities about the impasse between the unions and MMT had proved futile.
In an interview with newsmen, the Agona District Chairman of the Drivers’ Union, Mr. Kweku Dauda alias ‘Congo’ disclosed that the action of the drivers was not to demonstrate against anybody but to fight for their rights and prompt the authorities to relieve them of the ordeal they were going through as transport operators.
The Swedru-Accra branch chairman of GPRTU, Mr. Isaiah Otoo noted that the situation had become worse in that some drivers had to spend about three days before they could load passengers to Accra.
The Agona Swedru District Command of the Ghana Police Service led by the Commander, DSP Benjamin B. Morally responded to the action by storming the area and noting down the registered numbers of the vehicles involved.
This led to hooting at the police Commander by the drivers and passengers.
The action then took a different dimension when the drivers trooped to the MTTU Divisional headquarters to ‘free’ their colleagues who had earlier been arrested.
By the time of going to press, about 150 police personnel had been dispatched to Agona Swedru to maintain law and order. |
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