Fishermen complain about Deputy Minister's lateness

Ho, Jan. 12, GNA - Chief fishermen in the Volta Region have expressed frustration at having to wait for four hours for the Deputy Minister of Foo= d and Agriculture, Nii Amasamah Namoale, who was scheduled to meet them. The fishermen said they had arrived in Ho on Tuesday to attend the meeting scheduled for 0900 hours but were kept waiting and hungry until 130= 0 hours before the Deputy Minister arrived.

"We came here at 0815 hours without taking breakfast and had to wai= t for all this while," a fisherman in his early 70s said. Some of the fishermen said the delay had caused them to lose money for the day.

They said when the Deputy Minister arrived at 1300 hours, he went straight into action, espousing the achievements of the Ministry and urged the fishermen to assess the government objectively. He reprimanded fishermen in the region for not accounting for premix fuel allocated to them and reminded them that they had to use 53 per cent o= f the turnover from their allocations for self-help projects in their communities. Nii Namoale warned the fishermen against illegal methods of fishing an= d the stiff sanctions they would face if caught and appealed to young fishermen to take advantage of an aqua culture project the government was about to launch.