Two persons a Tipper truck driver and a driver belonging to the Gomoa East District Taskforce sustained head and bodily injuries after the task force from the assembly clashed with some Tipper Drivers over the payment of Quarry Development Fund at Gomoa Ojobi in the Central Region.
The quarry development fund according to Citi News sources was introduced in 2021 with the objective of using that money to develop communities where these quarries operate.
The Tipper Drivers were mandated to pay between eighty and a hundred cedis per trip to the task force for onward payment to the Assembly coffers.
The Protoa Tipper Drivers from Kasoa however rejected the move failing to pay the said amount to the Assembly during their collection yesterday.
The task force came this morning to collect the monies resulting in the bloody clash leading to two people getting injured in the process.
According to Benjamin Ankomah, leader of the Protoa Tipper Drivers Association they are not aware of the new amounts.
“The Task Force came in this morning and engaged our members in a fight over payments of quarry development fund. They forced our members to pay an amount of eighty cedis to one hundred cedis per trip. But the agreement we have with them was to pay fifteen cedis. Our embers have been brutalised by these tasks force. We have take some the Awutu Bereku health centre”Benjamin Ankomah chairman for Protoa Kasoa Tipper Drivers Union said.
District Chief Executive for Gomoa East Solomon Darko Quarm said that the levy has been sanctioned by the Assembly but denied the allegations that the task force from the assembly physically assaulted them.
“It is not true that our revenue task force assaulted the Tipper Drivers. It was the drivers who attacked our men instead. What money the task force is collecting has been sanctioned by the Assembly. A driver of the task force was severely injured and has been rushed to the hospital. The collectors are operating within the mandate given to the”District Chief Executive for Gomoa East Solomon Darko Quarm said.