body-container-line-1
06.08.2009 Regional News

GPRTU`s passionate plea to AMA Give management of Tema Station to us

06.08.2009 LISTEN
By Naa Norley - Ghanaian Chronicle

Drivers operating at the Tema Station in Accra are appealing to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to give the management of the station to them, to handle efficiently. According to the drivers, proper maintenance of the station is dwindling, with the place gradually becoming a hub for kayayei (female porters), pickpockets and wee (indian hemp) smokers.

According to the leadership of the driving body, before the commencement just-ended Africa Hockey Fiesta, the wooden structure housing the Welfare Office Complex of the station was demolished, since it was built close to the fence wall of the hockey pitch.

They said now the competition was over, they have not been allowed by the city authorities to put up a befitting office for the use of the administrative staff of the group.

They lamented that without the office, items left in the various vehicles by passengers cannot be traced by them.

He said files/documents and parking toll booklets from the old office complex are kept in an un-protected kiosk, which can be stolen or washed away by flood.

The drivers contended that they were ready to go in negotiations with the assembly in terms of revenue generation.

The drivers disclosed that their investigations reveal that some staff of the assembly were interest in the running of the station, which amounted to conflict of interest, and any time there was a move to restore sanity to the place, these staff come around and prevent the drivers from doing so.

The drivers say because of this interest, some staff of the assembly were at loggerheads with the drivers.

They again revealed that during the demolishing of structures at the station, it came to the notice of the drivers' Welfare Committee that a section of the hawkers there had contributed an amount to be given to the some staff members of the AMA.

Owing to this development, the drivers say some of the hawkers, who had displayed their wares in parking space, had resorted to raining insults on the rank and file of the drivers' leadership.

The drivers lamented that the entire station had no security, and the station was open to all kinds of vices at night, with no efforts being made to restore the gates.

They said, “It is nasty to see human excreta smeared on the concrete seats under the passenger sheds at the station, and one cannot hold anybody for that. Less than a two months after we painted the walls of the station, people have jump this wall, and the wall looking as if it has not seen any major rehabilitation works,” they emphasised.

Alidu Iddirisu, a driver at the Sukura Zongo station, said they were affected by the demolition exercise, as the wooden structure which housed passengers was destroyed in the process.

Alhaji Alidu said the passengers now queue in the hot sun while waiting for the vehicles to board, but was quick to add that the AMA had promised to furnish them with state of the art shed after the place has been rehabilitated.

The drivers, who appealed to the appropriate authorities to help restore the station because that is where they end their salaries, said that since 1993, the station had not seen any rehabilitation works until recently, when the assembly decided to do a mini-rehabilitation by sacking the hawkers.

They argued that there was the urgent need for the fence wall of the station to be raised a little higher, to prevent people jumping over, and additionally the security gates must be put in place.

Touching on the two public toilets situated in the station, the drivers contended that the toilets were being managed by private individuals, and that they find it difficult to complain about the unhygienic state, owing to this a section of the drivers and passengers use the drains at the entrance of the station and behind the National Lottery Authority, as urinals.

A survey of the place showed that two mobile toilets had been placed in the station, and a check with drivers' leadership revealed that they had no idea who placed them there

The drivers said, “It is pathetic that the AMA has been taking decisions concerning us, but does not ask us of our opinion, which is very bad.”

The new Tema Station was built in the 1992 by the then government, and drivers were allowed in the following year to commence business.

body-container-line