Racketeers On the Loose

A Peasant farmer, Kwame Boakye, 54, at Kubi Kwantu in the Adansi West District of the Ashanti Region near Dunkwa/Offin has bitterly complained about the prices of petroleum products especially kerosene at the Dunkwa filling stations.

The situation has worsened the already abject economic conditions of the poor rural farmer in the area and the surrounding villages in the Upper Denkyira district. Boakye revealed to the Chronicle that currently instead of the ?8,000 per gallon of kerosene it is sold at ?12,000 whilst a bottle is also ?3,000.

"I can now afford a bottle of kerosene at a time instead of the usual gallon due to the illegal price increase by the petrol filling stations".

The aggrieved farmer mentioned the Elf and Mobil filling stations as those responsible for these unapproved prices.

Further, Chronicle revelations gathered that whenever there was kerosene allocation to these filling stations, only a fraction was sold to the public under the pretext that it was finished, whilst in fact, larger quantities are given to contractors who then rip off the poor farming communities.

Meanwhile, the farmers have also drawn the attention of the government to the promise of spraying their cocoa farms free of charge against pests.