Overseas Mail Dumped In Drainage

...…THEY WERE ALL FIDDLED WITH Fourteen international mails sent to individuals and organisation through the Cantonment Post Office during the Christmas festivities were found in a drainage in Accra. The letters, sent to Ghanaian relatives, friends, and business partners from the United States of America and other European countries were found opened and dumped in the large drainage behind the Italian Embassy near the Cantonment Post Office.

Narrating the incidence, a passer-by who found the letters in very bad state told Weekend Agenda that on his way to the house after work at 3:pm on the December 24, 2003, his attention was drawn to a bunch of letters in a nearby drainage.

He went nearer and noted that one of the letters had been addressed to a recipient who bears the same name as his mother and decided to retrieve them from the gutter. A number of them were soaked.

Accordingly, he picked the mails and upon thorough examination, discovered that all of them originated from abroad. They bore addresses of various Ghanaians. Some of the mails are bulky suggesting that they contained items in addition to letters. Persons interviewed in the locality where the letters were dumped, said the spot had over time served as a dumping ground for all manner of items especially letters.

Agenda sources within the offices of the Cantonment Post Offices alleged that the perpetrators and their accomplices have means of identifying letters containing foreign currencies. They usually removed the money and other valuable items and dump the letters somewhere.

Ethel Asamoah, Post Master of the Cantonment Post Office told Weekend Agenda that she was not aware of any such fiddlers at post in her office. She explained that people had been at post and worked hard over the years at the Post office. They were men and women of integrity; she claimed and was therefore surprised at the findings Agenda was complaining about.

The Post Master was of the view that a few unscrupulous people, who intended to tarnish the image of the organisation especially the Cantonment Post Office, might have indulged in the shameful act.

Otoo Acheampong, Public Relations Manager of the Ghana Post Company Limited told this reporter that he had been informed about the incident and that he would contact the investigation department of the company before making any comment on the matter.

On his part, the legal advisor and the head of investigation of the organisation said, his outfit had been told about the complaint and was surprised that despite their continuous effort to flush the criminals out of the organisation, some were still operating within it.

He appealed to the public to volunteer information, which will assist the department to eliminate all those who seek to bring the name of the organisation into disrepute.

For some years now there has been public outcry against the way mails were tampered with and valuable items stolen.

The Ghana Post Company Limited has of late complained of the poor patronage of their services due to the introduction of the electronic mail (e. mail) services by the Internet providers in the country.

Observers believe that if the Ghana Post Company Limited should redeem their image and encourage the public to patronize their services, then they would need to put the necessary checks in place to rid the company of all the bad nuts from their midst. That is the only way to rebuild public confidence in their operations.