Ashaiman NDC task force takes over toilets

Two months after being handed the management of two toilets facilities, the Ashaiman National Democratic Congress (NDC) task force has taken over the remaining 19 places of convenience from the operators. The group's latest action comes in the wake of the assembly's failure to honour its promise of adding two other facilities to their earlier acquisition. When the Daily Graphic visited one of the facilities in the community, the new operators said they had been positioned there by the leadership of the task force to manage and render accounts to them. The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Addison Adinortey-Numo, in a telephone interview, confirmed the take over. Mr Numo, who is currently attending a one-day seminar for metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives at Agona Swedru, said he had instructed the Presiding Member, Mr Emmanuel Nikoi-Dsane, to convene a meeting with the assembly members to find a possible solution to the problem. Meanwhile, the secretary to the operators association, Mr Richard Ahwireng, said they had filed an official complaint at the Ashaiman Police Station, pending the outcome of investigations. The Ashaiman District Commander of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Peter Kobina, told the Daily Graphic that they had received a complaint from both the Municipal Chief Executive and the Ashaiman Toilet Contractors Association, and had, therefore, launched investigations into the forceful takeover. The leader of the task force, Mr Eric Brown- Voryee, who was taken aback by the decision of some members of the group, has called on the chief executive and the police to arrest the group for seizing the facilities. He indicated that the latest action of the group was illegal, considering the legal implications it would have for members following the Tema High Court’s decision in June this year barring individual parties from taking over the facilities following a binding contract between the assembly and the operators. Public toilets within the Ashaiman municipality became a subject of controversy between supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in January this year when the latter assumed office. The hullabaloo had seen the operators, who were believed to be functionaries of the opposition NPP engaging in a four-month legal battle with Mr Bawa Ibrahim, the NDC constituency secretary, and his organiser, Mr Habel Adjei, who were instrumental in the January seizures. Source: Daily Graphic