Kumasi Importers Alarmed By Extortion On The Aflao-Accra Kumasi Highways

Kumasi Central Market Importers Association has threatened to embark on a demonstration on against illegal collection of some fee by the security agencies on the Aflao-Accra-Kumasi highways.

They are doing this under the pretext of using the money to resource the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to fund their political campaigns for the 2020 general elections.

The traders, in a press conference on Wednesday in Kumasi, said the police, Customs officials and NPP Task Forces have been extorting money from them on security checkpoints on the highway, a situation the traders have threatened to demonstrate against it.

Some of the checkpoints include Ho License Office in the Volta region, Atimpoku, Kpone, Okrakojo and Huhunya Barriers at Koforidua in the Eastern region and Kubease Barrier in the Ashanti region.

Deputy Secretary of the association, Nana Yaw Owusu Agyemang Opambour, addressing the media said the task forces who have openly identified themselves as belonging to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), do not check their import duty documents, but only collecting money from them.

According to them, some Security Agencies such as police, custom Officers and Taskforce at the various barriers and checkpoints on Aflao – Accra – Kumasi road intimidate them and extort money from them after passing through the necessary checks on the various ports during importation.

The situation, according to them, is also collapsing their businesses as the money extorted from them is too many and exorbitant, ranging between GHC100 and GHC200, at each security checkpoint.

They added that petitions made to the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Boss, Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi, and the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator and Nana Oppong who is in charge of Transport at the office of the Presidency to intervene have been unsuccessful.

“Under our own government, we are been harassed by security agencies, pushing us out of business. We are by this press conference serving a final notice to the President Nana Akufo Addo government to stop harassing us else we will ‘spit fire on them’.