Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the New Juaben North and South Constituencies in the Eastern Region have forcibly taken over the operations of public toilets in the municipality.
This happens in the wake of several other reported seizure of public properties in other regions of the country after the swearing in of the New President Nana Addo Dankwa last Saturday.
In an interview with Citi News the Eastern Regional Police PRO, ASP Yaw Nketiah Yeboah disclosed that NPP activists took over the operation of all the public toilets in the municipality the midnight after Nana Addo was sworn into office as President of Ghana.
ASP Yaw Nketiah Yeboah
He said “The Eastern Region has been very calm and peaceful after the elections right until the evening of January 7th after the swearing in of President Nana Addo when the NPP supporters went to seize all public toilets in Anlo town, Betom, Krutown and others in the municipality, sacking the operators and terminating the contractual agreement the previous operators had with the New Juaben Municipal assembly which is expected to end on 2nd of March this year instead of allowing them to operate till the time their contract expires”.
He added ” the police command quickly moved in to calm situations and had a meeting with the original operators whose contract has not expired and it was agreed that the NPP supporters should pay the operators for the month of January to March when their contract expires”
He stated that the police command wanted to take them to court for settlement but they all agreed on out of court settlement.
He further explained that in the New Juaben North Constituency the NPP activist had already taken over the Toilet Operations without the knowledge of the command. He said ” the operators handed over the operation of the Toilets to the Npp supporters peaceful, the NPP activist claims in 2008 the NDC supporters did not consider any contractual agreement they had with the Assembly before taken over the Toilet Operations”
The PRO added that the Regional police command is Ready to deal with any political group who commits any criminal offence by seizure of public properties in the Region.
Nti Emmanuel a victim of the seizure and a former operator of the Anglican toilet in Betom in an interview with citi news explained how his facility was seized by the Npp supporters, he said ” I was there when I heard of a meeting the Npp assembly members had on taking over Public Toilet but I did not believe because I have one Assembly member in my area that am in good terms with in the person of Honourable Twumasi so I asked him and he confirmed but I did not expect them to come on to me like how they came”
He continued “I was at the facility when the NPP supporters came with macho men to ransack the place, tore the Toilet rolls for passer-bys to come in and use the Toilet for free.”
Nti Emmanuel expressed shock at the behaviour of the NPP supporters and asked the President and party leaders to call their supporters to order, he said, “myassemblyman Twumasi was in charge of this facility when the late president Mills took office in 2008 but he was allowed to operate for over one and half year till the contract he had with the Assembly expired so am really shocked for this behaviour because Nana Addo pledged to be president for all during his swearing in so he should please do something about it.”
By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana
