The Chamber of Automobile Dealership Ghana (CADEG) has called on the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for the immediate suspension of the order to seize some 95 luxury vehicles.
Their plea comes after EOCO in a press statement issued on Tuesday, April 18 announced that it has frozen some 95 luxurious cars alleged to have been stolen from the US and Canada.
EOCO has since warned individuals in possession of such vehicles to surrender them, heightening hints of a crackdown on illicit activities in the automobile industry.
The statement further requested the dealers in possession of the listed vehicles to provide the necessary documents covering the vehicles before May 3, or risk them being totally confiscated in accordance with the law.
But according to CADEG, claims that the said vehicles were stolen are untrue, and added that EOCO should halt its order of suspension to aid in further investigations.
“Per the investigations, it means that EOCO should have contacted us to get our version and see that most of those cars that have been claimed to have been stolen are not actually stolen but Ghanaians are rather victims of this international forces.
“It is a cartel work from Canada that they are using that cartel system to take advantage of the ordinary businessman to take their money from them. So I believe that that exercise should be suspended.”
CADEG also said that EOCO did not consult them when they froze the cars alleged to have been stolen and said that they have consulted some stakeholders to enable a thorough investigation.
“There were a lot of people that were consulted, but CADEG in particular was not consulted. But as I told you, even if you are not consulted, we have engaged other stakeholders like Interpol, Auto Theft, the Legal Department of CID, the Director General of CID, Customs, Shippers Authority so there’s a communication going on between us and how to sanitize the system.”
Some car dealers who expressed their displeasure in regard to the seizure said, “We will resist, we will take our cars from whoever is using the car. That thing is supposed to be out. And we are sending a signal to the government.”