Beneficiaries of the government’s youth in afforestation have accused the Ghana Police Service of frustrating their attempts to secure the needed permission to demonstrate.
The aggrieved beneficiaries have been agitating for some time now over the Forestry Commission’s inability to pay their allowances.
Speaking to Starr News, the Coordinator for the aggrieved beneficiaries Shaban Abdul Kadir said although they had written to the police for permission, they have not been given the go-ahead to embark on the demonstration.
According to him, they suspect the police of doing the bidding of the commission in not granting them the necessary pass to express their civil rights by demonstrating.
“Somehow we do feel so,” Abdul Kadir told Starr News when asked if the beneficiaries suspect some underhand dealings following the police’s inability to give them the necessary permit to demonstrate.
“We are only to notify them. But the police is making it look like we are seeking their approval of which is not the case,” he added.
We are hungry
According to the beneficiaries they have not been paid for close to five months, saying: “To be honest we are going hungry.”
They further noted that: “We go to the bushes without insurance, some of our colleagues are being beaten by snakes, some being cut by cutlasses and others. Nothing to protect us.”
“Aside Ashanti Region, the other nine Regions aren’t having their logistics, that’s the cutlasses, wellington boots and others to protect them and work with. So it seemed they just gave us the appointment letter without attaching any seriousness to it,” they added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
