Information reaching the New Crusading Guide indicates that the Minister for Fisheries, Hon. Sherry Ayittey, on Friday announced the dissolution of the Board of Premix Commission with immediate effect.
The decision is in response to the appeal the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC) made to government to dissolve the National Premix Commission set up to oversee the distribution of premix to fishermen.
The GNCFC claimed the Commission had failed to execute its duties appropriately.
It would be recalled that angry fishermen in the country issued a one-week ultimatum to fisheries authorities, including President Mahama, to sack the Chairman for the National Premix Committee, Mr. Kweku Nicol from office or they would hit the streets.
According to the fishermen, the work of the chairman has affected their operations, alleging that he has also established various landing beaches without the knowledge of the representative of the National Canoe Fishermen�s Council.
This, they said has made it very difficult to check the numerous diversions.
The angry fishermen stressed that they have made numerous research which revealed that most of the landing beaches were created inland; adding that �some do not even have access roads. In some cases, there are no fishermen at all and some too, the fishermen in the communities are not aware that they have formed a landing beach in the community�.
To buttress this point, the fishermen told this paper in an interview that many complaints have been made to the chairman Mr. Nicol, but he has refused to listen.
�The only answer he gives is that every LBC needs the premix fuel�.
They continued that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council handed over the entire unqualified station list to the chairman in order to cancel them but he still supplies those stations.
�Our question is where are those fuels going to? Because the qualified registered stations rather get their allocations 3 to 4 months whiles some did not even get any� they said.
They alleged that the chairman has rejected about 30 LBC�s in some fishing communities in the country submitting that one major reason why the supply of premix fuel is irregular is that the representative of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen�s Council at the Premix Secretariat has been sidelined by the chairman of the premix committee.
Meanwhile, when this paper contacted Mr. Nicole on the issue, he stated that besides the National Premix Committee, there are other channels the aggrieved fishermen could have channeled their complaints for redress.
Chairman of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council
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