The Ashanti Regional Security Council has directed management of the State Transport Corporation (STC), to suspend operations at the Asafo bus terminal in Kumasi, until the conflict with operators of the VIP buses is resolved.
According to a Citi News source, the meeting between leadership of the VIP, the GPRTU and the STC ended inconclusively.
[contextly_sidebar id=”MJ02Dve8dGaP8WQs2eDixAJrXqoTmqV2″]The meeting was to address a dispute between operators of the private VIP buses and the STC, who are both claiming ownership of a parcel of land at the Asafo terminal.
Drivers and some workers of the VIP, who had come in with two fully loaded buses and tied red bands, were restricted by the security from entering the premises of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.
The leadership were only allowed in to attend the meeting.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has declined comment on the outcome of the meeting,but says his office will issue a statement by close of day today [Tuesday].
Some officials of STC, who had visited the Asafo Market terminal to launch the Corporation’s new terminal were denied access to the venue by VIP bus officials.
STC failed to consult other GPRTU branches
The Director of Finance for VIP, Prof. Lukemond Owusu Ansah, explained that his outfit staged the protest to oppose some GPRTU officials’ decision to give out part of its land to STC without the consent of other branches of GPRTU.
“This issue came up and there was a little bit of violence here and we told them and the matter was taken to Manhyia …They were told that the whole place was acquired by GPRTU and it was demarcated for the various branches… We have about 21 branches there and it is the property of GPRTU … One or two executives cannot sell the property of GPRTU to STC.
“It is the whole 21 union members who are just contesting that it is constitutionally wrong…We are only saying that STC cannot occupy GPRTU’S land. It is not a property of Kokofu Union. It is a property of GPRTU as a whole” he insisted.
He also denied suggestions that they VIP transport operators, are only resisting STC because they are scared of competition.
One arrested in STC, VIP fight over terminal in Kumasi
On Monday, one person was arrested during the protest by workers of the Neoplan bus terminal at Asafo, Kumasi during the standoff.
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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana