Fuel and cocoa smuggling activities hit Juaboso, Bia districts
COCOA and fuel smuggling activities are reported to have hit the Juaboso and Bia districts of the Western Region.
Information reaching this paper indicates that Ivorian nationals have been crossing the border to buy the commodity and smuggle it back into their country.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bia, Mr. Francis Kottoh, who confirmed the smuggling of the fuel by the Ivorian nationals, told this paper that the District Security Council (DISEC) sat on the matter yesterday, and had devised measures to stop the practice.
The DCE, who would not tell this reporter the measures put in place by DISEC for security reasons, added that the DISEC was in full control of the situation now.
On the issue of cocoa smuggling by indigenes of Bia and Juaboso to Ivory Cost for sale, DCE Kottoh told this paper he was not aware of the problem.
According to him, his men were absolutely in control of smuggling activities, and if something of that sort had cropped up, he would have been in the know.
Yet, credible information available to this paper indicates that some cocoa farmers in the remote villages of the Juaboso and Bia Districts are engaged in massive cocoa smuggling activities to neighbouring Ivory Coast for sale, on the blindside of our country's security services.
Information has it that the smuggling of the commodity is perceived to stem from the depreciation of the local currency against the dollar.
Currently, a bag of cocoa is sold in Ghana for GH¢102.
The cocoa farmers engaged in the smuggling exercise come from villages such as Bonsu-Nkwanta, Osei-Kwadwokrom, Adama and Africa.
A Ghanaian native, who plies his trade in Abidjan, commercial capital of the Ivory Coast, and native of Sefwi, who did not want to be named, confirmed the story, and told this reporter that he had been seeing some of the local cocoa farmers in the Sefwi smuggling their cocoa to the aforementioned country to sell.
According to him, the farmers fearing they would be arrested in their smuggling exercises do not use the border, but rather use artificially created routes.
What this means is that officials of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) do not have any idea about the smuggling exercise.
The Sefwi Anwiaso Coordinator of the Cocoa Mass Spraying Exercise, when contacted, denied knowledge of the smuggling exercise engaged in by the farmers, and referred this reporter to the DCE.