Police impounds vehicle with smuggled fertilizer

Bolgatanga, July 26, GNA - The District Police Command in Bongo in the Upper East Region on Saturday night impounded a 33-seater bus bound for Niger with 90 bags of fertilizer suspected to be those subsidised by the Ghana government.

The Bongo District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ben Dakorah, said the police were conducting investigations and that the driver of the bus and his mate were in custody.

But for the vigilance of Mr Emmanuel Nsor-Atindana, the Assemblyman for the Zorko-Tarongo Electoral Area who informed the police, the Niger bound bus would have gone with the goods.

Mr Nsor-Atindana, the Presiding member of the Bongo District Assembly, said he had information that a bus loaded with fertilizers had got stuck in the mud and the fertilizer was being offloaded to enable the bus to be freed.

He said went to the scene and asked where the bus was going. The passenger, apparently the owner of the fertilizer, told him that he bought the fertilizer from Kumasi and was carting it to Niger.

The passenger said another vehicle with similar items had earlier crossed the boarder to Niger.

Mr Nsor-Atindana said he called the police and informed them and they responded quickly.

He said many people had been smuggling items including fertilizer across the Namo Boarder town to Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Togo.

He said shortage of fertilizer in the country particularly in the three northern regions could be attributed to smuggling of the product.

Mr Nsor-Atindana said Namo, Bawku and Paga were used as transit points for smuggled items such fertilizers and fuel.

He said the purpose for government subsidizing fertilizer would be defeated if extensive security measures were not put in place to check smuggling.

Mr Nsor-Atindana appealed to security agencies at the boarder towns to tighten up security to check the phenomenon and said farmers in the northern parts of the country could not get fertilizer.