Beleaguered and at the receiving end of violence and vandalism in many parts of the country, the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA) has accused the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) of carrying out systematic acts of violence against the Association, trampling on the law and virtually getting away with murder.

A disturbed Ben Amoabeng Peperah, National chairman told a shell-shocked THE SUN’s team of reporters that, his persistent appeals to members to operate within the ambit of the law has culminated in the issuance of death threats on his person because, PROTOA members in Kumasi figure they are nobody’s idea of sandbags to be fired into at will by GPRTU members.

It will be recalled that a bloody situation ensued last January 4, 2011 at the Asafo Market Interchange Station in Kumasi, where alleged GPRTU mobsters visited violence on PROTOA members, hospitalizing many and destroying ¢4,200 worth of equipment and other tools of trade.
PROTOA’s frustration stems from the fact that of all acts of vandalism perpetrated against its membership across the country, one Kwame Asiedu, GPRTU’s Kumasi Peugeot chairman who led mobsters to seize PROTOA equipment on that said day walks about a free man with audacious disposition.

Chairman Amoabeng Peperah protested that despite follow-ups to a report made earlier on by PROTOA to the Ashanti Regional Police, suspect Asiedu remains untouched while the Association’s seized equipment is still in GPRTU’s custody.
He wondered why an Association such as PROTOA, without a shadow of doubt the second largest transport grouping in the country be prevented unlawfully from operating by its rival GPRTU, when it is a legally registered entity that honours all its tax obligations to the state.

“This is supposed to be a free country whose beliefs and systems are stewed in law, where unions of various kinds can do legitimate business in a healthy atmosphere and indeed, I shudder to think just why the GPRTU is afraid of healthy competition,” Amoabeng Peperah queried.

The National chairman stated as unfortunate yet another incident at Kasoa in the Central region the other day, when PROTOA was prevented by irate GPRTU elements from commuting passengers to other destinations, when that union did not have the locus to do so.

He blamed the various District and Municipal Assemblies for playing the hypocritical card, when it came to enforcing the law at Lorry Parks because the facility is not the bonafide property of the GPRTU.

“Now we feel trapped, besieged and betrayed for while we carry out our financial obligations to the state by way of tax payments and the like, we are left at the mercy of the GPRTU which should ordinarily not be afraid of healthy competition from PROTOA, if it does its work well,” Amoabeng Peperah told THE SUN.
He called on higher authorities to intervene before violence against PROTOA attracts retribution of a potentially nasty degree from wronged members.
In some subsidiary matters, PROTOA complained yet again about the nocturnal creation of dangerous ramps at unauthorized places by certain townsfolk, which are causing lots of discomfort and accidents.

The Association also called on the Ghana Highway Authority to ensure that removed road signs are re-fixed so that drivers could be guided professionally, as they transport passengers to their destinations.

PROTOA announced that this year, it has set itself the duty of holding several seminars and programmes for its vast membership in such a professional manner, that should reduce the accident situation to the barest minimum. –THE SUN

ARMED ROBBERS GUN DOWN POLICE CHIEF
The cloak of mystery surrounding the killing of Chief Inspector Ahanogbe, Station Officer In-charge of the Accra Central Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) in a thick forest near Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region has been blown apart, a highly-placed Police source has said.

Last Sunday a stunned Ghana Police were rocked with the news of the killing of Ahanogbe, said to be one of the Service’s most dedicated servants in charge of the Accra Central Branch of MTTU in a Dodowa Forest.

The authorities are still combing around to ascertain what led to the death of the officer who was last seen on Saturday afternoon at Accra Central, even though preliminary investigations have unearthed some pretty good leads, one of which proves that the officer was killed by armed robbers.
According to sources that wanted to remain anonymous, Chief Inspector Ahanogbe, together with his son who is a soldier in the Ghana Arm Force last Saturday decided to go on a hunting expedition at night in the Dodowa Forest as has been the practice for sometime now.
THE SUN learnt that when the deceased and his son had identified a place at the Forest to map out the strategy for the expedition and went separate ways agreeing to re-group at dawn.
However as fate would have it Chief Inspector Ahanogbe, shortly after their separation, was attacked by a group of people believed to be armed robbers who were hiding in the bush mapping out strategic operations against motorists.
THE SUN gathered that during the ensuing commotion, there were exchanges of gun fire and in the process the deceased managed to gun down one of the robbers but he was over-powered by other robbers, who killed him.

At the appointed time when the deceased’s son arrived at their camp, his father was nowhere to be traced. When all attempts to reach him on his cell phone proved futile, Ahanogbe Junior decided to trace his father into the bush.
The source said he was shocked when he spotted his father’s body lying motionless in a mass of blood. As he pondered over what mighty have gone wrong, he spotted an unknown person also lying dead some meters away from his father’s body.

The deceased together with the assailant’s body have since been convened to the Police mortuary for autopsy, as the Police intensify investigations into the matter.