The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Concerned Drivers Union, David Agboado have indicated they feel betrayed by the authorities in the country.
He stated the government has taken them for granted after failing to fulfil its promise of the reduction of the taxes on fuel prices.
“In one of our meetings with the government, we were told the prices of petrol would be reduced to our satisfaction between 30th of last month and 1st of December. As of now, from that scheduled date till now, Goil still sells at the same price of GHC 6.85p. This means when they talk, they never intend to stay true to their words,” he told Samuel Eshun during an interview on the Happy Morning Show.
The Concerned Drivers Union PRO also indicated that they only wish for the nuisance taxes on the prices of fuel to be scrapped off. He said, “When you scrap the taxes off, the petrol prices itself will come down drastically, that is why we maintain our stand on the tax.”
Speaking on the commencement of the sit down strike by the commercial drivers on Monday, December 6, Mr Agboado mentioned that, the strike was planned for Thursday.
However, it was supposed to be called off after the late intervention by the Sector Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, which the commercial drivers didn’t agree to.
“We had our last meeting as a coalition on Thursday and that was when we decided to go on the strike on Monday. We were also waiting on the usual tricks from the government. Where they would send representatives to the dialogue again with us like they normally do but to no avail. At about midnight Monday, the President of the coalition communicated to us that, he has received a call from the Chief of Staff, IGP among other leaders. We intended to call off the strike but unfortunately, it was late and our drivers didn’t agree to it since they had already been told to embark on strike. We called the various regions, even my station at Lapaz but they still decided to uphold the decision for the strike,” he added.
This outburst comes at the back of the recently approved yet controversial 2022 Budget, with the various coalition of commercial drivers seeking the removal of some taxes on fuel prices. After several dialogues with sector ministers and threats of a sit down strike by the coalition, commercial drivers finally embarked on the sit-down strike to persuade the government to heed to their plight.
By: Jude Tackie