Drivers union threatens another nationwide strike
The Tamale branch of the Ghana National Cargo Transport Union has threatened to embark on a nationwide demo if their colleagues are not released from police custody.
The Northern Regional Police on Monday arrested six drivers for obstructing traffic in the city during a nationwide sit-down strike.
They were arrested for blocking two major roads, thus, causing inconvenience for commuters who were travelling into the city and those leaving.
The drivers blocked the Japan Motors and the Cemetery road junctions.
At the Cemetery Road junction, the protesters barricaded the roads with tyres, metals and gallons filled with sand among others.
But the group has disputed the police reports, stating their colleagues caused no harm with no just cause given for the arrest.
“If our colleagues are not released, we are going to embark on a legal strike and it is going to be nationwide because the union is just not in Tamale and we have already communicated it to our people at the apex,” the leader of the group said when they visited the Dakpema Palace to lay bare their grievances.
He further alleged their colleagues were arrested on the orders of a civilian.
“I don’t think anybody attacked the police station in Tamale here if anybody has the evidence, they can bring it out. We are law-abiding citizens and nobody will agree to attack police personnel talk of a police station.
“With strikes, there are definitely cars that will not abide by what you are anticipating so the guys said it was a union and didn’t understand why some people were working and asked the cars to stop but one man with GPRTU, they call him Shabille whose car was also stopped, he ordered the police to arrest them,” he claimed.
He stressed they have evidence to back their claims and they are ready to go to any extent to prove that.
