“Those of you involved in fertilizer smuggling, we will come after you”- Regional Minister
The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih has indicated his readiness to punish perpetrators of fertilizer smuggling which is bedeviling the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) policy in the Upper West Region.
According to him, the situation is dire in the Sissala East and West districts.
The Regional Minister warned that anybody caught in the nefarious act will be made to face the full regorous of the law.
This was made known when Dr Hafiz Bin Salih storms Tumu on Friday, 18th June, 2021 to hold a meeting with fertilizer distributors to pick some ideas from them as part of ways to find lasting solution to the annual problem of fertilizer smuggling.
He said the meeting was even necessary because the REGSEC had intelligence that 45 Rhino Trucks carted 300 bags each of subsidized fertilizer into neighboring Burkina Faso on the 8th of June, 2021.
“Some of our people have decided to be unpatriotic by engaging in criminal activities. You have allowed a few bad nuts amongst you to damage your image.” Some of you want to stab the nation in the back. What you are doing has become a security threat.”
He described those involved in the smuggling of fertilizer as selfish people whose criminal activities endanger the lives of others.
The Regional Minister described the dastardly act as worrying while announcing measures put up by the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to reduce the menace.
The measures include: All fertilizer distributors are expected to report to the office of the Regional Minister with their consignments before proceeding to their destinations.
Distributors are expected to offload their consignment between 6am to 6pm into a warehouse before further distributing to customers.
Distributors are also expected to seek approval from the Police Service before buying in large quantities.
Failure to operate within the measures will attract sanctions such as impounding and auctioning of the vehicle involved and selling the fertilizer.
However, the Minister said they will monitor the situation for the next two weeks and revise the measures if possible.
He encouraged those who are genuine dealers to continue with the good work and urged them to collaborate with the REGSEC to expose the bad nuts in order to sanitize the system.
“Why should we allow a few miscreants to damage our image” the Minister quizzed.
Dr Hafiz Bin Salih said more drastic measures have been put in place as part of enhanced security in the Sissala enclave to nip the situation in the bud.
