Revenue collection at the Adentan-Dodowa Tollbooth in Accra has grounded to a halt after the operators of the facility had abandoned it.
The action of the operators is against the backdrop of an alleged attack on the facility by some youth believed to be activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) last Saturday.
Since Sunday, when the toll collectors were reported to have vacated their post, drivers plying that portion of the road had not been paying tolls.
Visit
When the Daily Graphic visited the facility yesterday, the police were busily controlling traffic at the toll booth.
Information gathered was that when the inauguration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was ongoing at the Black Star Square last Saturday, some youth believed to be supporters of the NPP marched to the facility and forcibly took over.
They are reported to have also taken the money that had been collected by the toll collectors.
Police source
A highly placed source at the Adentan Police Command confirmed that the police had to intervene to guarantee the safety of the toll collectors.
The source added that the police, upon initial assessment of the situation, asked the operators of the tollbooth to resume duty since the situation had calmed down but they failed to return to post for fear of being attacked.
“They were supposed to have resumed last Sunday. But as we speak, they have still not returned to the facility,” the source added.
The source dropped hints that a formal complaint had been made by the tollbooth operators and the police were taking statements from six of the complainants to inform their next line of action.
Complaint
Some of the toll booth operators who spoke to the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity said they could not put their lives on the line because there was every indication that the attackers were likely to return.
They could not understand why the police had not been able to identify the perpetrators of the act, let alone retrieve the money the attackers forcibly took from the toll booth.
At the Ayi Mensah Tollbooth on the Aburi road, the story was different. At that facility, the operators were at post and performing their duty as expected of them.
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