About 40 irate National Democratic Congress (NDC) youth led by one Kofi Ogoe, last Sunday morning barricaded the Mankessim Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) station and took over the operations of the station.
The protest, according to the Central Regional Chairman of the Cape Coast branch of the GPRTU, Mr. Kwame Kuma, aka Twer Nyame, started shortly after the union executives had rejected the group’s offer to be made permanent members of the union.
At a press conference in Cape Coast last Tuesday, Mr. Kuma disclosed that since most of the youth were Taxi drivers and drivers of private companies, there was no way they could enjoy certain incentives, let alone be considered as “full time members” of the union.
The chairman said on a second thought the union executives thought it wise to register some of them and share them amongst the various transport unions in the municipality as permanent members, but only when the NDC youth have submitted a formal application.
According to Mr. Kuma, this recommendation by the union irked the known NDC activists, who demanded that their government was in power, and therefore be allowed to take over the affairs of the lorry station.
The chairman added that the group, obviously, unhappy about the move, decided to block the GPRTU number one lorry station amid yelling and hurling of unprintable words at their executives.
The situation nearly resulted in bloodshed when some GPRTU members decided to strike back.
The incident, Mr. Kumi said, compelled his outfit to lodge a complaint at the Municipal Police Command and to the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Kweku Hayford.
He added that efforts by his outfit to call a truce in the matter has so far not yielded any meaningful results as they are constantly harassed by the NDC youth.
“We don’t want to fold our arms and watch the youth intimidate us because of their political affiliation with the NDC,” he said.
Mr. Kumi disclosed that the matter has also been reported to the Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, but to no avail.
“We believe that the interest of some few party individuals should not reign over the country and we are seizing this opportunity to call on the IGP and other stakeholders to call the NDC youth to order before the situation gets out of hand,” the chairman stressed.
The regional chairman, however, promised the union’s commitment to ensure that peace prevails in the region.
Meanwhile, the central regional police commander has ordered the NDC youth to leave the place for the GPRTU executives.
STORY: FROM MAGDALENE SEY, CAPE COAST
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