Ashaiman NDC Youth Seize Lavatories

OPERATORS AND managers of public toilets in Ashaiman have told DAILY GUIDE that certain youth believed to be members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the area have started seizing toilets once again.

The operators who wished to remain anonymous said the youth claimed they took over the facilities because the jobs promised them by their party leadership have not materialized since the NDC came to power.

The frustrated youth have therefore vowed to hold on the facilities if they were not offered any meaningful jobs by the NDC leadership in the Ashaiman constituency. The operators are blaming the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASMA) for failing to stop the group after they first seized the toilets for almost four months.

The irate group made two further attempts the second of which prompted the operators to take legal action against them. Presently the operators have started legal proceedings against ASHMA over the seizures of the facilities which the NDC youth are now controlling even though they are not legally contracted to manage them.

“As we speak now, the toilet issue is before a Tema court so we do not see why they should come back to seize them again when the court had already asked that their management be handed over to us until our tenure is over,” one of them told DAILY GUIDE.

The managers noted that certain persons in the area were behind the unlawful actions of the youth and have urged the assembly to take the necessary precautions to ward off such trespassers from the toilet facilities and ensure the operators delivered their services without any interruptions.

“We have sent correspondence to the assembly sometime back and have asked in two separate letters dated July 29 and September 29, 2009 for an extension of the Franchise Agreement covering our operations for 17 weeks due to the unlawful seizures which have affected us in so many ways,” another manager said.

They said they were aware of statements by Addison Adinortey Numo, Municipal Chief Executive of ASHMA during his sessional address to the assembly in September last year that his outfit might not extend the franchise due to public complaints about unsanitary conditions at the toilets which he claimed had been confirmed by the Waste Management Department.

But the managers have denied the allegations saying they strongly believe these remarks “were deliberate ploys to incite assembly members and the public against us and create an atmosphere to unilaterally terminate the franchise agreement that existed before he took office.”

Asked what their next line of action would be, they explained they were not perturbed about the actions of the NDC youth since they had already sent the case to court. Concluding they noted that if the youth are not stopped, their behaviour would set a dangerous precedent for other lawless youth thereby affecting the peaceful atmosphere existing in the constituency.