A youth group calling itself the Concerned Youth of Keta, in a press statement, alleged that Mr Gemegah had arrogated the powers of the landing beach committees, which distributes the fuel, to himself and his cronies.

Mr Gemegah, the group noted, was managing the sale of the consignment to fisherfolk without transparency and accountability.

 According to the statement, committees that refused to comply with the MCE’s directives were made to suffer unwarranted consequences.

MCE’s response

However, Mr Gemegah told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the allegations being made against him were unfounded and did not represent the position of the entire youth of Keta.

Rather, he said, a handful of individuals were behind the allegations to serve their own interest.

“As we speak now, there is flooding in my community and, therefore, I don’t have the time to respond to allegations from few people who claimed to be peeved, because you can come to the municipality to check and you would see that there is no truth in the allegations,” Mr Gemegah said.

Allegations

Citing Vodza and Adzido, major fishing communities in the municipality to buttress their point, the group stated that  the community had been arbitrarily blacklisted by the MCE, and since June 2022, had not received a single drop of the essential commodity.

“In April 2022, one premix fuel consignment meant for Nukpesekope Landing Beach Committee was diverted to another location,” the group said.

The group said fish and fisheries were integral parts of the livelihood,  culture and heritage of the people in all the coastal-fishing communities.

“The sector is also estimated to approximately employ 6 million people in the value chain in Ghana which translates into 20 per cent of the population,” it said.

The youth group lamented that despite enormous importance of the industry, the local fish resources and management were suffering the combined effects of weak governance, abuse of power, lack of transparency, heavy exploitation and, in some cases, marine and ecosystems poor management practices on the part of officials.

They, therefore, called for remedial actions to stop the MCE from his “autocratic’’ leadership towards the communities which was not only denying the people their due, but also tarnishing the image of the government.