[ 2011-04-20 ]

Hon. E.T Mensah

Contractors accuse E.T Mensah of ‘killing businesses for votes’
A group of contractors who are into sand winning
and stone quarry operations have accused the
Minister for Employment and Social Welfare of
trying to kick them out of business.

The contractors, who operate at Ahwiam in the
Ningo Prampram area where the Minister is an MP,
say their activities have been destabilized
because Hon. E.T Mensah is backing a youth group
to carry out illegal sand winning on their legally
acquired lands.

One of the complainants, Mr. Frank N.T Ashidam,
who is the Chairman of the National Association of
Sand and Stone Workers and Tipper Truck Users,
told Citifmonline.com that the Minister is using
his office to back his ‘campaign boys’ to take
over his concession.

He said he and two other contractors have acquired
lands and received the appropriate legal clearance
from the Environmental Protection Agency, the
Chamber of Mines and a license from the District
Assembly, yet they have not been able to work on
the land for several weeks because they were
chased out by the Minister’s ‘campaign
boys.’

Mr. Ashidam said aside the fact that the youth
numbering about 80 have no approval to win sand in
the area, their illegal and indiscriminate
activities leave the land bare, thereby causing
farmers to lose their sources of livelihood.

He said the youth have turned down an offer to
work with him after they had agreed at a meeting
with the Prampram District Police Commander that
they were going to load the tipper trucks.

“I gave the boys the option to work alongside
the machine because that is what we do around the
whole country. The machine works and the hand
loaders work alongside the machine because the
hand loaders have no license and they have
degraded all the land. When they do it, they leave
it and E.T. Mensah is aware of that” he noted.

He said on Monday April 19, the Minister’s
‘boys’ attacked his workers who had returned
to work on his land. According to him, although
the case has been reported to the police, no
serious action has been taken.

Hon E. T. Mensah has represented the Ningo
Prampram constituency since 1993, and was a
minister in the NDC one (1) Rawlings
administration.

Mr Ashidam however said he would not sit
unconcerned whilst his investment is “wasted by
the Minister and his boys,” and has vowed to go
to every length to ensure that the right thing is
done.

“E.T Mensah cannot formulate his own laws. He is
a Minister of Employment so he must know better.
So if the Police cannot give us protection to do
our job then we will see how best we will also
protect our workers because E.T. Mensah is not the
Governor of Ghana and cannot take the laws into
his hands and I won’t allow him to do that. If
he was in Parliament when the law was promulgated
in 2006 and today he is telling me that he will
formulate his own laws to supersede that law, is
it fair?” he queried.

“He cannot say that because the boys are his
campaign boys, they do whatever they want. If all
Ministers are doing this, what does he think will
happen? Some of them should think better and stop
these things because they are creating problems
for the government” he noted.

When reached for his reaction, Hon. E.T Mensah
told Citifmonline.com that he could not allow the
“720 young men,” some of whom had been winning
sand before the latter’s arrival to be denied
their survival.

According to him, he had reached an agreement with
the contractor to clear his machines off the field
and only go there with his trucks in order to
allow the boys to do the loading.

The Ningo Prampram MP said the activities of the
youth are not illegal as alleged by the
contractor. But Mr. Ashidam has described the
Minister’s explanation as “lies.”

According to him, he has not held any meeting with
the Minister. He said Hon. Enock Teye Mensah has
only spoken to him on phone and persuaded him to
meet the demands of his boys, and also issued all
kinds of threats at him.

He said the number of youth involved the illegal
activity are about 80 as against the Minister’s
claim of 720.

Source - Citifmonline

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