Importers Dismissed Alleged Customs Boss’ Death Threat: “IT IS A HOAX” (1)

Barely twenty-four hours after The Al-Hajj, on the 28th of March 2012 reported on its front page a story under the caption, Lamentation of a Deputy Commissioner of Customs…, I'AM UNDER THREAT - Corrupt Importers Let-loose Assassins…, swift reactions reached the paper from some of the country's importers.

As if coordinated, all the importers who called into our offices within 24 hours after the story hit the news stand, challenged the authenticity of the claim by Mr. Sam Akwasi Yankyera, Deputy Commissioner, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in charge of Operations that he has been issued with death threats by people suspected to be importers and their agents, whose underhand deals to deprive the state of revenue are being thwarted by him.

Most of the importers who called into our offices claimed the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations was making up the story to draw sympathy and considerations from the authorities as he is due to go on retirement.

They however did not hide the fact that they relished seeing the exit of the Customs man, because as they put it “he is the cause of the current depression in the import sector, which if continued unchecked can collapse indigenous importers in the country.”

But Deputy Commissioner Akwasi Yankyera has denied their assertions and dismissed all allegations particularly the one on him not wanting to go on retirement.

In his reaction, Mr. Yankyera, who was getting emotional, retorted “talk is cheap? I don't run Tema, I don't go to the port, if their documentation is correct, we don't even come in and I can tell you 90% of goods brought in get clearance without valuation assurance coming in”.

According to him “even without you telling me who these people are I can mention their names, they should better shut-up, they have been cheating the state for far too long”.

Mr. Yankyera confirmed he is due for retirement on the 28th December 2012, but said he is not scheming to stay a day longer. “Let us for once see Ghana as our constituency”, he earnestly pleaded.

In separate interviews, the importers, while intimating they have been so disheartened by Mr. Akwasi Yankyera's discriminatory highhandedness, they nevertheless, were consoled by the fact that he Yankyera, whom they claimed had mesmerized government with his high-falutin 'credentials' as someone raking-in more money for the state, would be going on his unavoidable retirement any time soon, and therefore it can never be true they wanted him dead.

The importers said they are joining in the call by the Revenue Protection Information Bureau (RPIB) for a full-scale investigation into the alleged death threat on the life of the Deputy Commissioner of the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Mr. Sam Akwasi Yankyera.

The Al-Hajj, on the 28th of March, this year reported that Mr. Sam Akwasi Yankyeram, a Deputy Commissioner (Operations) of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), who is also responsible for Revenue Mopping and Administration on Customs Transaction, was reported to have been threatened with death by offended importers and their agents, whose nefarious activities (resulting in the state losing several millions of Cedis) had been uncovered and were being pursued to fork-out the cash.

Mr. Akwasi Yankyeram, who confirmed the death threats on his life to The Al-Hajj, nevertheless said he didn't have concrete evidence of those who wanted him dead, save to say it was based on hearsay, but believed his sources.

When asked whether he had reported the threat to the security agencies, he insistently said no because that was not the first time he was getting such threats “No, no. Normally, these things, in the course of your job, if you always want to be fair and principled, you get these things (threats), people even go to the extent of concocting stories, telling lies, that sort of things, with time you get used to them,” he confidently explained.

Following this disclosure, the Co-ordinating Director of RPIB, Mr. Godfred Nkrumah in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra appealed to the government and stakeholders like the GRA to investigate the death threats, especially when Mr. Yankyeram was not engaged in any criminal conduct but was doing his legitimate duty to combat revenue loss to the state.

However, most of the major importers in the country who spoke to this paper challenged the authenticity of Mr. Sam Akwasi Yankyera's claim, insisting he is cooking up the story for considerations from the authorities to push forward his mandatory retirement from the public service.

Stay tuned.