A group of contractors who are into sand winning and stone quarry operations have accused the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare of trying to kick them out of business.
The contractors, who operate at Ahwiam in the Ningo Prampram area where the Minister is an MP, say their activities have been destabilized because Hon. E.T Mensah is backing a youth group to carry out illegal sand winning on their legally acquired lands.
One of the complainants, Mr. Frank N.T Ashidam, who is the Chairman of the National Association of Sand and Stone Workers and Tipper Truck Users, told Citifmonline.com that the Minister is using his office to back his ‘campaign boys’ to take over his concession.
He said he and two other contractors have acquired lands and received the appropriate legal clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chamber of Mines and a license from the District Assembly, yet they have not been able to work on the land for several weeks because they were chased out by the Minister’s ‘campaign boys.’
Mr. Ashidam said aside the fact that the youth, numbering about 80, have no approval to win sand in the area, their illegal and indiscriminate activities leave the land bare, thereby causing farmers to lose their sources of livelihood.
He said the youth have turned down an offer to work with him after they had agreed at a meeting with the Prampram District Police Commander that they were going to load the tipper trucks.
“I gave the boys the option to work alongside the machine because that is what we do around the whole country. The machine works and the hand loaders work alongside the machine because the hand loaders have no license and they have degraded all the land. When they do it, they leave it and E.T. Mensah is aware of that” he noted.
He said on Monday April 19, the Minister’s ‘boys’ attacked his workers who had returned to work on his land. According to him, although the case has been reported to the police, no serious action has been taken.
Hon E. T. Mensah has represented the Ningo Prampram constituency since 1993, and was a minister in the NDC one (1) Rawlings administration.
Mr Ashidam however said he would not sit unconcerned whilst his investment is “wasted by the Minister and his boys,” and has vowed to go to every length to ensure that the right thing is done.
“E.T Mensah cannot formulate his own laws. He is a Minister of Employment so he must know better. So if the Police cannot give us protection to do our job then we will see how best we will also protect our workers because E.T. Mensah is not the Governor of Ghana and cannot take the laws into his hands and I won’t allow him to do that. If he was in Parliament when the law was promulgated in 2006 and today he is telling me that he will formulate his own laws to supersede that law, is it fair?” he queried.
“He cannot say that because the boys are his campaign boys, they do whatever they want. If all Ministers are doing this, what does he think will happen? Some of them should think better and stop these things because they are creating problems for the government” he noted.
When reached for his reaction, Hon. E.T Mensah told Citifmonline.com that he could not allow the “720 young men,” some of whom had been winning sand before the latter’s arrival to be denied their survival.
According to him, he had reached an agreement with the contractor to clear his machines off the field and only go there with his trucks in order to allow the boys to do the loading.
The Ningo Prampram MP said the activities of the youth are not illegal as alleged by the contractor. But Mr. Ashidam has described the Minister’s explanation as “lies.”
According to him, he has not held any meeting with the Minister. He said Hon. Enock Teye Mensah has only spoken to him on phone and persuaded him to meet the demands of his boys, and also issued all kinds of threats at him.
He said the number of youth involved the illegal activity are about 80 as against the Minister’s claim of 720.
Source: Citifmonline.com/Ghana
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