Minister Rejects Petition

A Petition sent to the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Samuel Sarpong by drivers who had been ejected from the Kejetia Bus Terminal to have them reinstated, has failed to achieve its desired purpose. Without mincing words, Dr. Sarpong stated emphatically that the petition sent to his office by the aggrieved drivers had no merit and so he had decided not to grant them their wish. The regional minister consequently ordered that the drivers should quickly leave the Terminal and operate at the Abinkyi Market where the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) had relocated them to. He was addressing top police officers in the region, including DCOP Kofi Boakye, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, as part of his visit to the security agencies in the region. The KMA, led by the Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, relocated the drivers to the Abinkyi Market as part of the decongestion exercise at the Kejetia Bus Terminal. But the drivers returned to the place to operate, with the excuse that people were not patronizing their services at the Abinkyi Market. The KMA considered their action illegal and so on Monday the assembly ordered its security guards to forcibly expel them from the Kejetia area. The leadership of the drivers, who were determined not to vacate the place, petitioned the regional minister to intervene on their behalf. Dr. Sarpong said after carefully studying the petition of the drivers, he had realized that their argument or reason for wanting to return to the Terminal didn�t hold water. The minister said the congestion problem at Kejetia was becoming too much for the city authorities to deal with, stating that the area needed urgent and thorough decongestion.