Executives of the Kpong branch of the Co-operative Society have dismissed various accusations of impropriety levelled against them by personnel of the GPRTU.

Executives of the transport group responding to the allegations of parking and loading by the roads, coercing passengers from the GPRTU yard to join vehicles in the Co-operative yard and refusing to join the GPRTU and PROTOA to operate from one yard, denied the allegations and questioned the rationale behind such “false and baseless” claims.

The leadership of the Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) and the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA) at Kpong in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality have threatened to take the law into their hands if nothing is done to bring the operations of the Co-operative Society to order.

The Co-operative Society has been accused of parking and loading on the roads, forcing passengers from the GPRTU yard to the Co-operative Society yard to board their vehicles and refusing to join the GPRTU and PROTOA in one yard to operate.

The leadership of the GPRTU who accused the Co-operative Society of operating with impunity said nothing has been done to address the situation which has lasted for over ten years despite persistent appeals to the municipal assembly.

“You’ll come here in the morning only to meet drivers of the Co-operative Society loading on the streets,” Alhaji Abdulai Masawudu, GPRTU Branch One Chairman complained bitterly adding that their persistent appeals to the Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly to resolve the feud have yielded no results.

“We went to the assembly to complain to them regarding the problem that we’re facing which we cannot tackle alone, for the assembly to intervene and bring the Co-operative Society to join us to operate from this yard,” he added.

At the time of visiting the station, red bands were tied at vantage parts of the station with officials of the GPRTU also spotted with bandana tied to their arms and heads, a situation Alhaji Abdulai Masawudu explains was to demonstrate their anger and displeasure over the issue.

The situation, according to the leadership has become unbearable as the GPRTU/PROTOA transport yard has virtually become a graveyard as passengers are whisked away by persons they described as macho men hired by the Co-operative Society to run riot by preventing and coercing passengers to join the Co-operative Society vehicles operating along the road and the Co-operative Society transport yard.

“You’ll park your car here from morning to evening and there are no passengers to board and nowhere to go. We are really suffering,” one driver lamented bitterly.

Francis Dzivenu, secretary to the GPRTU Branch One accused the Cooperative Society of converting a place given to them for temporal operations into a permanent transport yard and thereby refusing to join them operate from one transport yard just as pertains everywhere.

But responding to the allegations, president of the Cooperative Society, Benjamin Owulaku in dismissing the claims recalled how the GPRTU in 2003 declined the Cooperative Society’s request to join them operate from the station.

The GPRTU, he disclosed, which claimed to have incurred a lot of debt in its acquisition of the place demanded Ghc 1000 from them before granting their request. He said though the society paid the money, the money was later returned to them with the explanation that they (GPRTU) were not ready to work with them.

The group subsequently acquired its present place in 2003 from where it’s been operating since.

The Cooperative Society chairman said following complaints to the then Lower Manya Krobo municipal assembly in 2015 by the GPRTU to compel their society to join them to operate from a common place, the issue was sent to an Odumase-Krobo circuit court where then Akosombo Divisional MTTU Commander, ASP Akwesi Yeboah and former Akuse District Commander, ASP Francis Ackah who were referenced in the suit, denied any knowledge of the case, leading to its subsequent dismissal by the court.

Based on this ruling, an ex-parte was served the lawyers of the cooperative who in turn served the defendants.

After the determination of the case in 2016, the Co-operative, according to Mr. Owulaku, won the case and a cost of Ghc 4000 awarded against the plaintiffs.

The executives who said the place was lawfully acquired for their operations with legal permit for their office building, wondered the basis of the accusations despite going about their operations lawfully.

“We don’t go into the yard of the GPRTU to whisk passengers into our vehicles, neither do we load on the roads,” said the executives, adding that passengers preferred to board their vehicles due to the good working relationship they have with them including offering them free luggage services unlike what pertains on the other side.

Indeed independent checks conducted by this reporter on the roads showed that only GPRTU vehicles loaded on the roads, contrary to the allegations that the Cooperative Society loaded on the roads instead of the GPRTU.