The authorities concerned may have to act swiftly to forestall a potential bloodshed at the Teshie Landing Beach in the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
This is because a group of aggrieved canoe owners have ‘declared war’ against members of the area’s pre-mix committee over alleged misappropriation of close to GHc120, 000, being profits supposedly accrued from the sale of pre-mix fuel.
They have consequently threatened to resist with the last drop of their blood any attempt to offload pre-mix fuel for sale at the beach.
The group, named Tashie Canoe Owners Association led by Mensah-Mensah and Boye Martey, are mad at the fact that the Teshie Landing Beach pre-mix committee has failed to account for profits accrued from the sale of pre-mix fuel since June, 2009.
They insist the committee is expected to render accounts every three months, and use the profits accrued from the sale for the development of the landing beach. At the moment, the landing beach does not even have any structure to provide shelter for fishermen when it is raining.
Mensah-Mensah, Boye Martey and their group are also angry at the fact that the committee that oversees the sale of the pre-mix fuel is “mostly composed of relatives and associates” of the Municipal Chief Executive, Daniel Amartey-Mensah, who has been accused of condoning the wrong acts of the committee.
On February 12, this year, a serious confrontation occurred at the landing beach when Mensah-Mensah and his group attempted to prevent the sale of the pre-mix fuel by the committee. It took the intervention of the Teshie police to calm down the situation. Even though the police advised the committee to sit down with the aggrieved group and render accounts as demanded, the committee is yet to do so.
The aggrieved canoe owners have now threatened ‘fireworks’ at the beach if they should see any tanker offloading pre-mix fuel for sale by the committee.
“In the previous one, we were a bit gentle, but this time around we are wild and ready to fight them with all our might if they make any attempt to sell pre-mix fuel at the beach,” Mensah-Mensah threatened during an interview yesterday at the offices of the Front Page newspaper.
“They have to do accounts of all the sales they have made over the years and tell us what the profits were used for, because we don’t see any development taking place at the beach,” he added.
The aggrieved canoe owners estimate that the committee, which is chaired by one Adjei Kane, who called himself chief fisherman, a crony of the Municipal Chief Executive, Daniel Amartey Mensah, has collected over GHc120, 000 in profits since it took over the management of the pre-mix fuel in 2011 under the tacit instructions of the MCE.
According to the group, they will no longer allow the sale of pre-mix fuel to take place at the Teshie Landing Beach unless the authorities they have petitioned over the matter, from the MCE through the sector minster to the presidency, prevail upon the committee to account for the profits accrued from previous sales.
“The profit made over the sales of the said fuel should benefit all the canoe and net owners at Teshie, so that such profit should be used to manage and maintain the fishing work at Teshie landing beach. At the moment, people who are in charge of the sales of the pre-mix fuel have taken it as their personal property,” one of their petitions stated.
Attempts by this paper to reach Mr. Adjei Kane to react to these allegations prove futile as his Tigo mobile line was off as at the time of going to press.
Front Page earlier on left massage on his phone after many attempts but Mr. Adjei did not get back to deny or confirm the allegation.
The CID in charge of the case at the Teshie Division Command, also refuse to comment on the case.