Winneba (C/R), Aug. 22, GNA - Alhaji Mustapher Mohammed, Central Regional Co-ordinator of Pre-mixed Fuel, has appealed to the government, the Ghana COCOBOD and other agencies responsible for the cocoa spraying exercise to ensure that the programme did not coincide with the fishing season.

He said this would make it possible for fishermen to get enough supply of pre-mixed fuel for their expeditions during the fishing season to enable them to do vigorous business to re-pay their bank loans. Alhaji Mohammed made the appeal in a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency at Winneba on Tuesday in a comment over reports of shortage of pre-mixed fuel at Winneba and its surrounding communities. The Regional Pre-mixed Co-ordinator said careful studies he had conducted had revealed that during the cocoa spraying exercise every year, fuel supply to fishermen became a problem because some consignments of the product had to be used for that purpose. He suggested that since the two programmes were equally important to the soc-economic development of the nation, they should not take place simultaneously or that the pre-mixed fuel allocation should be increased to make the two programmes successful. Many fishermen at Winneba had told the GNA that since the past two weeks they had not received any pre-mixed fuel supply, though they had made orders for supply.

According to the fishermen the situation had compelled some of them to travel to James Town and other fishing communities in Accra and Tema to purchase the product at exorbitant prices. They claimed that a drum of the product was being sold between GH=A2160 (1.6 million cedis) and GH=A2 190 (1.9 million cedis) instead of GH=A2 150 (1.5 million cedis) at their local re-fuelling centres. The fishermen reiterated that if they did not get enough pre-mixed fuel now that they were in the fishing season, it would be very difficult for them to pay back their bank loans.

Neenyi Kweku Mbri, Apofohene of Winneba when contracted confirmed the shortage but refused to elaborate. He appealed to the fishermen to exercise restraint while efforts were made to normalise the situation, adding that fishermen in Winneba did not owe the oil marketing companies.