The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) says checkpoints have been mounted at Akuse in the Eastern Region to provide 24 hours surveillance to prevent poisoned tilapia from being smuggled into the region.
The move, according to NADMO, is to ensure that “no person smuggles any dead tilapia to the market to sell to the general public.”
Kwame Appiah Kodua, the acting regional Director of NADMO, in a press statement said, “NADMO, based on rapid assessment of report submitted by our team in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, which supervised the burial process close to the Fujien Farms at Asutuare in the Greater Accra Region, in collaboration with the Eastern Regional Secretariat and the Ghana Police Service, have mounted a barrier at Akuse in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, which shares boundary with Asutuare to provide 24 hours surveillance.”
Mr. Kodua, in an interview with RITE fm, a Somanya-based radio station, hinted that the mounting of the checkpoints started after NADMO officials visited the affected farms to access the situation as part of plans to safeguard the people of the Eastern Region.
According to him, “Even though Asutuare is in the Greater Accra Region, this issue goes beyond Asutuare, especially as the Eastern Region shares boundary with the town and so once it affects Asutsuare, Lower Manya and Asuogyaman, which are both in the region, would also be affected.”
Last Friday, tonnes of unwholesome tilapia were destroyed by the Fisheries Commission at the farms.
The Ghana Aquaculture Association last week called for calm after it emerged that at least 18,000 tonnes of tilapia died at the fish farm and had to be destroyed.
Part of the fish farm, Fujian Farm, a Chinese-owned company, has since been shut down pending further investigations.
Some fishmongers were later found to be carting the dead fish, locally known as ‘Koobi,’ for sale to the unsuspecting public.
In the statement, NADMO said it has intensified monitoring in the affected communities to bring the situation under control.
“We have detailed our Zonal Directors and Disaster Volunteers Groups (DVGs) to intensify surveillance along adjoining communities that share boundary with the Eastern Region,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, NADMO is encouraging persons, who see any unscrupulous persons with the dead tilapia to report for the appropriate actions to be taken.
Some locals believed to be fishmongers from Volivo, Alabonya and Aveloenye, near Asutsuare in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, were reportedly carting the dead tilapia for processing as dry salted fish as ‘Koobi.’
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, has assured the public that it’s safe to buy tilapia from the market.
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