Ali Djamongue Tantom (ADT) Transport Company Limited has appealed to the government to compensate its management, following the burning of one of its buses with registration number GR 7501-21 at Loogri-Walewale, North East Region, on Friday, February 14, 2025.
Mr. Richard Karikari, Manager, ADT Transport while addressing the media on Monday indicated that transport operators would have to stop plying that route, if the government cannot protect them.
Mr. Karikari appealed to the government to come to their aid because government officials help traders when markets get burnt, as well as the apprehension of the culprits to bear the cost of the bus, which he disclosed is worth GHC1,100,000 (inclusive of duties).
Mr. Richard Karikari disclosed that they (A.D.T) cannot give the government any timeframe to come to their aid, but are appealing to government to help them recover their burnt bus, or they will advise themselves as a company.
ADT Transport Company Limited, a commercial transportation company, which has been in existence for the past 7 years, with 15 buses, plies the Kumasi to Widana Pulimakom route.
He linked the burning of the bus and the resultant death of five people (four burnt and one shot), one person is in critical condition at Tamale Teaching Hospital, to the ongoing Chieftaincy conflict in Bawku.
He explained that the said bus, loaded with 45 passengers and other valuables, was en route from Pulimakom to Kumasi, but developed a mechanical fault, for which the bus parked at a police barrier at Loogri-Walewale for repairs.
Mr. Karikari, referring to eyewitness accounts, said a man came over to say “he needs a Kusasi lady to marry”, but the passengers answered there is no Kusasi among them.
He said 20 minutes after the man had left eight motorbikes, each carrying two gunmen approached them and shot indiscriminately, killing one and setting the bus ablaze.
The Manager stressed that what happened on that fateful day is very appalling, because most of their clients are foreigners (Togolese and Burkinabes), who are among the dead and injured.
Mr. Karikari noted that though the Ghana Police Service used to assign a personnel (not in uniform) to a bus en route, it ceased due to the conflict, which started October last year, but a police patrol car served as an escort for the buses that ply the route.
From Oswald Pius Freiku, Kumasi
