The Anti-Piracy Task Force has seized more than 3,000 pirated textiles worth millions of Ghana Cedis in the last 5 months.
According to the task force, they are awaiting the approval of the Trade Ministry to destroy them.
[contextly_sidebar id=”94nKgQnT1MpH456pARlm2Q8BaUxAOUZe”]An Anti-Piracy Task Force set up in August 2010 and reconstituted in 2013 was aimed at flushing out traders involved in the illegal textile business.
According to the Chairman of the Task Force, DSP Samuel Naa Musa, the group is ready to follow any directive from the Trade Ministry.
“We cannot just go make arrests and easily go, and burn. When we get these items, we have to inform the minister and if the minister gives his approval then we will go and do because if we do anything it is the minister that would be called upon,” he explained.
According to him, the task force only awaits the Minister’s approval to carry out the destruction of the textiles saying, “if we gather these 3,000 and the Minister says tomorrow, we will go and burn then we will all do it.”
He mentioned that “even though we have been given the mandate, we don’t work on our own; at least we have to seek consent from him.”
Textile workers in the country had embarked on series of demonstrations over the high rate of importation of pirated textiles into the country.
The country was recorded to have lost over GH¢300,000, in revenue alone in 2012 due to the smuggling of pirated textiles into the country.
By: Patricia Conteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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