The Greater Accra Region’s Tema Station lorry terminal, which is close to Ministries, the center of government operations, has a mountain of trash that the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPTRU) has denied being in charge of.
The left wing of the truck terminal, which is close to the Theodore Okoh Hockey Pitch, contains a pile of trash.
The trash, according to the shopkeepers and delivery men, has been accumulating there for a few months.
The pile of garbage smells bad and has attracted a swarm of flies.
The vendors claim that the garbage is a result of the city officials’ failure to regularly pick up the trash after it has been put at the local collection station.
They express dissatisfaction about having to pay a daily toll for the removal of trash from the terminal and the fact that commercial drivers must pay a toll at the gate for terminal upkeep even though no real maintenance is carried out.
However, in response to the charges made by the commercial drivers and traders, Mr. Kofi Afful, the welfare chairman of the GPRTU at the Tema Station terminal, stated categorically that the union was not to blame for the accumulation of trash in the terminal.
According to him, the union used to be in charge of cleaning up after passengers at the terminal, but some individuals requested that the Assembly terminate the union’s contract with Jekora Ventures due to political expediency.
On December 7, 2022, during an interview with Odehyieba Kofi Essuman, host of the Ghana Yensom morning show, Mr. Afful absolved the union of any wrongdoing.
He claimed that since their agreement with Jekora Ventures was canceled, they were unable to regularly clean up the terminal.
He was direct when he said that after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government took office, citizens stood up to demand that some of these contracts be awarded to them as it was now their government.
So, he bemoaned, “the union’s contract has been taken away.”
He joked that a clinic had been constructed inside the terminal for those who were ill as a result of the dirt.
He disclosed that the terminal is home to around 1,000 head porters.
He continued, “Almost everything is done at the terminal.” “Only in our country do we utilize politics to derail policies that will benefit regular people. You can see what we are up against now, he remarked.
Source: newsthemegh.com