Pre-mix committee gets tough with fuel-siphoning tanker drivers

Cape Coast, Aug. 26, GNA - Tanker drivers engaged to convey pre-mix fuel to the Central Region have been cautioned to desist from siphoning the product and warned that anyone caught in the act, would be handed over to the police.

Mr Agyeman Kesse, financial secretary of the Regional Co-ordinating Committee on Pre-mix fuel, gave the warning at a meeting with some executive members of the Tanker Drivers Union and chief fishermen in the region on Monday.

He said reports reaching the committee indicated that the supply of the product to some landing beaches often fell short of between 50 and 100 gallons.

"Although the drivers involved were made to pay for the shortage, culprits will henceforth be handed over to the police for prosecution, since the practice is becoming too rampant."

Reacting to concerns raised in the media that the irregular supply of the product was affecting fishing in the region, Mr Kesse explained that landing beaches had been grouped into three categories of A, B and C. According to him, those in category A, receive weekly supplies, while those in category B and C, get their supplies in three and four weeks intervals respectively.

Mr Kesse said it was therefore, "not proper for any fisherman to rush to the press for the publication of irregular supply of the product, when they knew the time for their supply was not due." The Regional Co-ordinator on pre-mix fuel, Mr Mustapha Mohammed, said there was sanity in the supply of pre-mix in the region and urged local pre-mix committee members to ensure prompt payment for their supplies.

The chairman of the Tanker Drivers Union, Mr Abudulai Brahima, urged the fishermen to help expose the "bad nuts" in the union by reporting them to the police.

He suggested that to ensure effective monitoring of tanker drivers, fuel meant for the Central and Western regions, be discharged at the Takoradi Depot as was being done sometime ago.