Queues have started building up at fuel filling stations in Accra as the strike by fuel tanker drivers to protest the arrest of some of their colleagues in a military/police operation on Saturday begins to bite.

The fuel filling stations are either quiet because they do not have supplies or are full of activities, as vehicles had queued up to top up.

Station attendants said they had not received supplies since the weekend.

The loading rack at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) had been inactive since Tuesday because tanker drivers had withdrawn their services.

Mr Robert Forson, Chief Executive Officer of TOR, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, "the tanker drivers are refusing to be loaded since (Tuesday) morning".

He said the Executives of the Tanker Drivers Association have said they were attending to some of their colleagues, who were mistakenly arrested during the military/police operations at the weekend at Ashaiman.

Thirty-five persons, including tanker drivers, were on Tuesday remanded until June 3 by a Tema Circuit Court for illegally dealing in petroleum products at Ashaiman and Tema.

They all pleaded not guilty.

Mr Robert Aganiba, Assistant Commissioner of Police, told the court that on May 24, a combined team of the military and police carried out an exercise at some petrol garages during which the accused persons were arrested.

He said some of them were arrested siphoning petrol into drums and jerry cans. Money believed to be proceeds from the illegal business were found on them and five petrol tankers were also intercepted.