Taxi Drivers Fight Kobby Acheampong

Kobby Acheampong, Deputy Minister of Interior has incurred the wrath of taxi drivers in Kumasi for making disparaging remarks about them few months after he came under attack for similar unsavory comments about Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The foul-mouthed Deputy Interior Minister is reported to have said on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana programme that taxi drivers were responsible for the perennial shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

According to reports, Mr. Acheampong noted that the conversion from the use of petrol to gas by most taxi drivers has led to the recurrent shortage of LPG on the market since the NDC came to power.

He said the commodity is purposely imported into the country for use by households.

The deputy minister allegedly accused taxi drivers of criminalizing the economy by overly using LPG, which according to him, was causing untold hardship for the government.

Not pleased about the reported remarks of the leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the taxi drivers in the Garden City on Wednesday held a brief protest march in the early morning.

After converging on Adum where they made noise, the angered taxi drivers visited some radio stations and vented their anger over the alleged uncomplimentary comments by Kobby.

The infuriated taxi drivers indicated that they feel insulted by the purported comments by the Deputy Interior Minister and demanded an unqualified apology.

They stated that Kobby's pronouncement that taxi drivers have criminalized the economy through their usage of LPG was not far from describing them as criminals who do not want the good of the country.

The enraged taxi drivers, who abandoned their activities briefly in the morning to the displeasure of commuters in the city, gave Kobby up to this weekend to apologize to them.

Kofi Asare aka 'No line,' spokesperson of the annoyed drivers told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that if the Deputy Interior Minister refuses to apologize to them, they would advise themselves during the 2012 polls.

According to him, taxi drivers in Kumasi were instrumental in the victory of the NDC in the 2008 elections due to the fact that they campaigned vigorously for the party because of the ill-treatment the NPP government meted out to them.

The spokesperson said he does not understand why anybody will blame taxi drivers for the persistent shortage of LPG, stressing that taxi drivers do not buy the product for free.

'If you are selling a product and the demand is high, common sense will tell you that you have to produce more so that there will be no shortage but you do not have to sit there and throw hands in the air,' Mr Asare observed.

Against this background, he charged the government to explore pragmatic measures to ensure constant supply of the product to assuage the suffering of the citizenry and desist from apportioning senseless blame.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi