Akplabanya fisher-folks protest against Fisheries Watch Volunteers

By Laudia Sawer, GNA

Ada (GAR), May 8, GNA - Fisher folk of Akplabanya in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region, have protested against the inauguration of the pilot Fisheries Watch Volunteers taskforce.

The group numbering about hundred clad in red stormed the Otrokpe Basic School park in Ada Foah in the Ada East District where the inauguration was to take place to stop the programme.

They started agitating when the programme commenced, while a few police personnel present tried to control them but to no avail.

The group made up of both men and women, who were chanting war songs and shouting “wa be kplen”, to wit “we will not agree” and charged towards the high table when the volunteers were asked to come forward to be inaugurated.

Not satisfied with the hurling of insults on the volunteers, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and other dignitaries at the programme, they violently started pulling down canopies erected, and throwing away of chairs, resulting in a rampage.

The protest led to a holdup of the programme for over 30 minutes as officials from the Ghana Navy, Marine Police and the Police Service had a hard time controlling the fisher-folks.

Leaders of the group after being calmed down apologized to the Minister and called for a dialogue to enable them table their concerns to the Ministry.

According to them, the operations of the task force to check illegal fishing activities would destroy their fishing vocation which was their source of livelihood.

Mrs Quaye, commenting on the protest, said it was unfortunate that the group accused the Ministry of not properly constituting the volunteers’ task force explaining that the protesters could have just informed her outfit of their interest to be part of the enforcers who were made up of fisher-folks from the fishing communities in Greater Accra Region.

She noted that the aim of the Ministry and its development partners was aimed at stopping illegality not promoting what was wrong, adding that the task-force was not put in place to fight fisher-folks but rather use them as a watchdog.

She explained that they met with the fishermen associations and introduced the programme to them, after which some of them volunteered, and were trained to form the volunteer watch group, stressing that the Ministry had no hand in who was selected to join the watchdog group.

Mrs Quaye regretted that some of the fishermen had turned themselves into politicians and were calling for members of a particular party to join the watchdog group, adding that “we are not taking a partisan look at this, but rather having the people who do the fishing to be involve in the management of the fish stock”.

GNA

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