GPRTU Secretary Allegedly Threatens To Kill Chairman

The long unresolved dispute between Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) members at the Kaneshie-Takoradi branch has led to death threats and assaults on some members of the group.

Secretary of the appointed Interim Management Committee (IMC) at the Kaneshie- Takoradi branch, Mr. John Kwesi Ansah, has been reported to the Kaneshie Police for allegedly threatening to kill a former GPRTU Chairman of WATO- Accra Central, Mr. Bernard Klottey, for supporting their embattled executives in court.

Mr. Bernard Klottey and his wife, on 8th July 2016, around 11:00am, were on their way to purchase some items at the Kaneshie-Takoradi station when they were confronted by the secretary with other 15 boys and subjected him to severe beatings and threatened to kill him for supporting their former executives.

Mr. Klottey told to the Kaneshie Police that he had no issues with the secretary and that “the issue John Kwesi Ansah claim to have with me is my support to their former station executives, challenging the IMC for taking over the station”.

An eye witness to the incident told this reporter the victim (Klottey), together with his wife were purchasing some items from a shop in front of the Kaneshie- Takoradi station when the boys came with the IMC Secretary (Ansah) and assaulted him.

Mr. Klottey lodged a complaint at the Kaneshie Police station and was given a medical form to receive treatment at the Police hospital because he was experiencing internal chest pains after the attack.

The intercepted Police hospital report indicated that Mr. Klottey is suffering from bad breathing, pains in the chest and coughing due to the attack.

“I am scared for my life now because apart from Kwesi Ansah, the 15 people who attacked me are not people that I know but can recognise them when I see some of them”, he told this paper.

The dispute has been between two parties- members of the former branch executives and members of the regional and national executives, and it has taken the intervention of the

Kaneshie Police to resolve disputes at the station whenever it arises whilst the regional and the national GPRTU executives looked on unconcerned.

Meanwhile, Mr. John Kwesi Ansah has been invited by the Kaneshie Police to respond to the allegations and that a docket has been prepared to take the case to court.

In a telephone interview with Mr. Kwesi Ansah, he confirmed that he confronted Mr. Klottey with some station members but he did not threaten to kill him.

He said there had been some dispute between them and their embattling executives but he had no intention of killing any of them.

“If Mr. Klottey claims to have internal chest pain and he has been to the hospital and paid some bills, he should bring them to me I will refund all the bills. I will prefer we settle this matter as an union issue and not in court but if he decides to still pursue it in court I will be in court and if I am jailed I will leave it to God”, Mr. Kwesi Ansah responded.