Western Regional Minister's Life Threatened?

The Western Regional Police Command has deployed a 4-hour guard to protect the regional minister, Joseph Aidoo. The Regional Security Council says it has intelligence information suggesting that people with connections to fuel smuggling syndicates have planned to assassinate the minister.

The shocking revelation that some people are planning to kill Mr. Joseph Aidoo comes a week after the Regional Minister led an operation in Takoradi. Since that operation soldiers from the second battalion of infantry and the police have raided several areas in the Sekondi Takoradi metropolis where the illegal siphoning of fuel has been taking place.

Soldiers from the second battalion of infantry even moved the operation to Yamoransa in the Central Region upon a tip off where several suspects were arrested. Now some people with vested interest in the illegal fuel siphoning business want to kill the Western regional Minister.

This according to the intelligence report is because of Mr Aidoo’s initiative culminated in the series of operations leading to the arrest of some of the dealers and confiscation of hundreds of empty barrels and dozens full of fuel suspected to have been siphoned.

Mr. Aidoo who announced the assassination plot in Sekondi said some unknown people plan to kill him by crashing his car with one of the heavy fuel tankers on the road.

The Regional Minister did not give further details about the threat on his life but he quoted the intelligence information which said fuel tanker drivers in the Western and Central region are planning to sabotage the economy by going on strike.

Representatives of the fuel tanker drivers who were invited to the Western regional Security Council meeting however denied this but the Regional Administration said that tanker drivers, nevertheless refused to deliver goods to major filling stations on Thursday and Friday.

The tanker drivers’ union representatives promised to prevail on the drivers to resume delivery. To avert serious shortage, however, the Regional Minister said the office of the Chief of Staff has made arrangements to supply diesel to much of the Western Region with tankers from TOR.

Meanwhile diesel shortage has been reported in mining areas around Tarkwa but this is expected to be reversed soon with the arrival of fresh tankers from Tema.