Petrol Smugglers Adopt New Tactics

Despite the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products in the country by the government to stem the rampant smuggling of the commodity to the neighbouring countries, the illegal exercise is still going on in a refined manner at the border towns.

Investigations conducted by the Chronicle at Elubo, a border town in the Western Region, have revealed that Ghana's petrol, which is processed at great cost to the tax payer, is being smuggled in droves across the Elubo border on daily basis to the Ivory Coast by the commercial drivers plying between the French speaking country and Ghana.

Chronicle was told at Elubo last Wednesday that though the price of the commodity had been raised by the Ghana government to almost the level of that of Ivory Coast, the depreciation of the cedi against the CFA Franc has made the price of petrol in Ghana far cheaper than that of Ivory Coast.

As a result of this, the Ivorien commercial drivers and some private cars have been crossing the border to the Ghana side where they fill their tanks and return to Ivory Coast to empty it and then come back to fill it again. This appears to be a lucrative business currently going on in the border town.

Some concerned Ghanaians who know the in and out of this lucrative business told Chronicle that the price per litre of petrol in the Ivory Coast when converted into our currency is ?13,000.

So these commercial drivers under the pretext of plying between their country and Ghana buy the fuel at ?20,000 per gallon, which is about five liters and cross the border to sell.

"My brother, you multiply ?13,000 which is the price per litre in the country by five litres which is a gallon in Ghana and being sold for ?20,000 and you will know the profit these Ivorien drivers are making," one of the concerned people told the Chronicle at the border.

Some border officials who spoke to the Chronicle on condition of anonymity confirmed the story but said there is nothing they could do about the situation.

According to the official, the ECOWAS protocol demands free movement of people and cars across borders of member countries.

As a result of this, they cannot prevent Ivorien commercial drivers from transporting people to and from Ghana.

The official further said if the drivers have been buying the fuel in drums and transporting it across the border, then they have the legal right to seize it, but the present situation is different from this.

"I think the only way we can stem this practice is for our government to strictly enforce the law that says all petrol dumps should be sited 18 miles away from our borders," the official added.

Last Monday, an Ivorien driver who is apparently in this clever fuel smuggling business had his car gutted by fire which spread to the nearby market and burnt wares running into several millions of cedis.

The driver has since run back to the Ivory Coast. An eyewitness told Chronicle that the Ivorien driver filled his fuel tank and greedily bought some of the petrol and poured it into a polythene bag.

Luck however eluded him as his car caught fire a few metres from the Ghana side of the border.

He had at some time filled two gas cylinders with gas, which also exploded during the fire, resulting in the burning of wares belonging to Ghanaian traders in the nearby market.

It took the timely intervention of the Western Regional Minister, Hon. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who visited the border town last Wednesday, to avert what could have been a bloody clash between traders in the Ghana side of the border and Ivorien nationals.

Intelligence report has it that some of the Ghanaian traders were plotting to attack the Ivoriens after their nationals had caused them to lose several millions of cedis.

Addressing the aggrieved traders after inspecting the burnt market, Hon. Boahen Aidoo, who had to rush down from Accra because of the incident, pleaded with the traders to drop any idea of attacking Ivoriens who have crossed the border to the Ghana side because of what their colleague had done.

He reminded the traders, who wore red bands, that if the unfortunate incident had happened in Ivory Coast, the security forces would not have sat down for their countrymen to attack innocent Ghanaians.

They would rather use the due process of the law to address the problem. According to the minister since the number of the car is available, "the driver can hide but not to run away."

Minister Aidoo, who was accompanied to the Elubo township by his deputy, Ms. Horner-Sam, and all the regional security council members, asked the traders to take note of the fact that they have also been crossing the border to the Ivory Coast to trade and that any disturbances could affect their colleagues who have crossed the border to the Ivory Coast too.

Hon. Boahen Aidoo assured the traders that personnel would be sent down to assess the situation for the government to know the kind of help it could also give them.

He however made it clear that the present site of the market would be re-located to ease traffic congestion in the town.

Currently, it takes close to an hour to move from Enchi junction to the Ghana side of the border, a journey that could have been done within five minutes.