?Aliens? invade tomato trade

? As AMA, KMA, Immigration look the other way

Painstaking investigations conducted by The Statesman reveal that, regardless of the laws prohibiting aliens from engaging in petty trading activities without the necessary clearance from the appropriate quarters, some of them, particularly of Burkinabe origin, have turned major players in the tomato trade in Ghana. Unfortunately, however, the institutions tasked to check such illegal activities appear to be looking the other way, as the crime pervades right from the points of entry into Ghana to the various urban marketing centres, especially Kumasi and Accra.

Our investigation further revealed that there exists a particular group of Ghanaian traders who arrange for tomato from Burkina Faso and who, whilst they have their identities and cargo labeled Ghanaian, actually front for aliens, especially the Burkinabes, most of whom are the real owners of the huge, multi-billion cedis tomato cargo brought into the country from mid-December to mid-May.

Our investigations further revealed every expense on the tomatoes: from the farm gate cost of the commodity to containers or crates used for the tomatoes; and sorters and porters fees as well, are borne by the Burkinabe bigwigs. All the Ghanaian counterpart does is take delivery of the cargo, dump it on the markets and take his commission, whilst the real owners hide and watch till the loads are disposed off and their cash set aside for them. Most of the big fishes behind these criminal activities come from the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra and other points in Kumasi where the dumping of tomatoes persists to the detriment of the business activities of the hard working Ghanaian women traders who take all the travel risks and use their own financial resources to buy from Burkinabe farm-gates, only to return and find the market polluted.

Because of the huge numbers of traders who have invaded the tomato business, the traders themselves have put in place a schedule system that allows all registered members to earn some modest profit from their trading activities on allocated marketing days, essentially because the commodity is perishable and preservation and processing facilities unavailable to the traders. Most of these alien and unseen traders, who are aware about this arrangement, but who for selfish reasons choose to flout the laws, enter Ghana territory using unapproved routes, and invade tomato markets in the country with their cargo. In the process, they not only deprive our principal revenue collecting agencies of revenue, but also deprive districts of tolls and levies needed for grass roots development activities, especially in Kassena-Nankana, Bongo and Talensi-Babdan, all in the Upper East Region through whose territory these cargoes pass.

Worried district and municipal council sources say they have tried the language of diplomacy and tact, but these recalcitrant drivers and traders, do not appear to understand why they should conduct their business activities lawfully. The DCEs and MCEs in those areas are therefore making moves to track down such recalcitrant drivers for prosecution and confiscation of their vehicles, ?if that would knock some sense into their heads.?

They were worried as well about ?strong suspicions of drivers carrying contraband goods into Burkina Faso, particularly marijuana, roofing sheets and petroleum products.?

Ghanaian traders who have been accused of assisting foreigners to dump tomatoes on our markets are Madam Akua Anim, Ankpa Anim, Naomi Anim, Vida Anim and Larteley Lartey.

The notorious one on the list of police in one of the districts in the Upper East is a certain Serwah, who used false documents to bring in a huge consignment to Ghana later found by police to belong to a Burkinabe. ?The Burkinabes come in huge trucks that carry around 500 boxes instead of the 150-180 our trucks here conventionally take? They dump the tomatoes and create a glut. Those of us who use borrowed or hard earned capital to run our businesses are affected and we ran into losses?.These Burkinabes have no resident and business permits, and they have been in this act of lawlessness for more than five years now. The Ghanaian traders with no known stations front for the Burkinabe traders and engage in that act of dumping?the AMA knows it?,? Madam Taanye told The Statesman last week.

Narrating one such incident that occurred recently at one of the Agbogbloshie tomato markets, she told the paper that on the 13th and 16th of February 2006, these ?importers? brought a cargo in two huge trucks to the market. Two women who aided and abetted the Burkinabes in the act were duly suspended by the association in accordance with the association?s constitution and regulations. ?They ignored the suspension, and continued to operate. On February 2006, we met another 12-wheeler truck at the Kandiga junction, in the Upper East Region loaded with 300,000 crates of tomatoes in the name of Moumoulli Zida, a Burkinabe. The matter is currently in the domain of the AMA? I believe they are expecting those involved to own up voluntarily before they act? but that is the fact?there is a sordid case of dumping on our markets and nobody appears to be doing anything about it??

Another fraudulent importation document in the custody of The Statesman had the name of one Adjua Serwa on it, though according to traders on the ground, no tomato trader on the market goes by that name. The unseen owner of the cargo eventually succeeded in dumping the commodity, the paper learnt.

The driver of that particular truck, clearly a Burkinabe, could not speak one word in any local Ghanaian dialect. He was merely in town to dump the tomatoes. Captain Okine, a high-ranking official of the AMA and the business district?s security coordinator has been made aware of the situation already. About three months ago, he pledged at a meeting with a section of the association to handle the matter with the urgency it deserves. But that was all, the paper learnt from an AMA source.

AMA?s Market Accountant, Mr. Asare, who is the supervisor in charge of all the markets in the business district, is only interested in his tolls and levies, and not the welfare of traders of their economic well-being?? one AMA staff, confided in The Statesman.

All the AMA did, according to our source at the Mayor?s office, was to indicate through a letter to the aggrieved traders that they had ?just been made aware about the situation, and are investigating.?