According to the commercial drivers, come next week, if the price of the commodity is not reduced in parity with the current economic hardships in the country, they will be compelled to storm the private residence of the sitting president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the private residence of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to register their displeasure about the spiraling price of the commodity and return to Kwame Nkrumah Circle with their naked demonstration.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana, Nana Yaw Kwakye made this disclosure on the back of speculations that petrol price will be increased to GHS 11 per litre for Diesel and GHS 10 per litre for petrol.
Earlier the drivers had said the GHS8.44 mark per litre of petrol is highly abnormal and causing an unbearable hardship on them.
According to the drivers, the continuous increment should never be justified by the government with the Russia-Ukraine war and the continuous falling of the potency of the Cedi against the US dollar.
In their view, the tax component on the price of a litre of petrol is a major contributor to the “abnormal rate.”
“We strongly believe that the taxes, when removed, will aid the reduction of the price of petrol. It must be noted that one major promise of this government was to remove the taxes on petrol,” the concerned drivers noted in a statement.
They reminded President Nana Akufo-Addo that Ghana is an oil-producing country and “so we possess every right to call on the government to have petrol subsidised for us in circumstances where the world market price rises.”
“President Akufo-Addo should remember that in opposition, he promised to during a campaign tour at Kwame Nkrumah Circle that, he was going to reduce petrol prices for us should we vote for him. Today, he is in his second term as President but has deliberately chosen to forget about that key promise. It’s about time he woke up from his slumber to act quickly,” the statement said.
The drivers have given the President and his government a one-week ultimatum to have the price of petrol reduced or together with their allies such as GPRTU, Co-Operative, PROTOA and Cargo Drivers, they will mass up and block the entrances of his Nima residence to prevent him from going out.
“Yes, that action is just one out of many radical demonstrations we’ll embark upon to press on the president to have the prices reduced as we are considering also the blocking of all major roads with our vehicles.”
“Amidst the continuous precarious petrol prices,” the drivers are also calling on all Ghanaians to stand with them devoid of partisanship as “we fight for a more relaxed arrangement to be made by the government
Source: Classfmonline.com
