Scrap dealers clash with national security over auctioned rail parts

National Security operatives have reportedly intervened to prevent a group of scrap dealers from dismantling railway materials at the Takoradi Port in the Western Region.

The dealers, operating in groups of ten, were discovered cutting large amounts of metal, including railway wagons and rails, at an old railway shed located within the port.

One of the individuals, identified as Alhaji Razak, confronted the operatives, asserting that their activities were legitimate and sanctioned by a committee composed of political figures from the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis and Effia Kwesimintsim Municipality.

He stated that the committee had sold the scrap deal to them for GH¢330,000 per 100 tonnes of metal.

“They told us that the Railway Company was going to auction some of their items at the port and that if we paid that amount, we would be allowed to take them,” Razak mentioned, adding that they had already made payments to the group responsible.

He claimed to have transferred the funds to one Chairman Seidu, who is described as an NDC constituency chairman in Effia, and accused the National Security operatives of obstructing their work because the Transport Ministry had not yet received payment from the alleged sale.

Razak, who feels that the committee misled them, is seeking a refund of the GH¢330,000 he and his group paid.

“We just want our money back,” he stated, disclosing plans to petition the Western Regional Chairman of the NDC and other senior party officials for assistance.