National Security operatives have stopped a group of scrap dealers from scavenging railway materials at the Takoradi port.
The scrap dealers, operating in groups of ten, were cutting tons of metal, including railway wagons and rails, at an old railway shed in the Port of Takoradi.
One of the scrap dealers, Alhaji Razak, confronted the National Security operatives. He claimed that a committee comprising some national party actors and constituency chairmen from the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis and the Effia Kwesimintsim Municipality of the Western Region had awarded them the deal.
According to the scrap dealer, the committee sold the railway materials to them at GH¢330,000 per 100 tons of scrap metal. Under the deal, each group of ten would have to pay GH¢330,000 for every 100 tons of scrap metal.
He explained that the committee informed them the properties of the Railway Company were being prepared for an auction and that “if they paid up the sum, they would be given the rights to cut the metals as scrap.”
“They told us that the Railway Company is going to auction some of their items at the port. We were told they have been granted the rights to sell these items. And so, if we can afford to pay that amount, they will let us take up these items,” he added.
When asked on what grounds the National Security operatives were stopping them from cutting the scrap metal, Alhaji Razak said, “they say the Transport Ministry is yet to receive payment from the sale of the metals.”
But Alhaji Razak claimed he had already paid one Chairman Seidu, a constituency chairman of the NDC in Effia, for the scrap metal. He added that the National Security operatives think “what they [the committee] showed us isn’t part of the consignment.”
Frustrated by the incident, Alhaji Razak is demanding a refund of his GH¢330,000 paid to the party chairmen.
“As of Monday, some of us made the payment to the committee. We decided to start work on Tuesday, and they said they were working on the documentation, so we should wait till Wednesday. Today we came and it’s an entirely new conversation. We just want our money back.”
He thus promised to petition the Western Regional Chairman and other high-profile political actors of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for redress.
Source: 3news.com
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